
I 



CHRISTIANITY 



INFIDELITY;. 



OR, THE 



TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY, 



BY THOMAS B. THAYER. 



BOSTON: 
BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY. 
1 8 3 6, 



\0 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by 

Benjamin B. Mussey, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



( BOSTON : 

) William A. Hall & Co. Printers. 

( 122 Washington St. 



PREFACE. 



The writer of the following pages is aware, that 
the subject of which they treat has been often and 
ably discussed by others ; but he is also aware, 
that their works, for the most part, are of too vol- 
uminous or too critical a character, to engage the 
attention of that numerous class of readers who 
might be induced to go through a less labored and 
less imposing volume. The works of Lardner, 
the most valuable ever written in defence of the 
Christian religion, are not probably seen, much less 
read, by one in five thousand of the great mass of 
the people. And nearly the same remark may be 
made in relation to the works of Macknight, Le- 
land, Stackhouse, Gregory, Newton, Home, and 
even those of Watson and Paley. It is well 
known that Paley's volume is more extensively 
circulated and read than any other work on the 
same subject, and yet it is presumed that there are 
more who have not read it, than who have. 

The object aimed at in the present volume is, 
the throwing together in as small a space as possi- 
ble an outline of the Christian argument ; not with 
the expectation of making it a substitute for the 
works mentioned, but with the hope that it may 



IV 



PREFACE. 



serve as a kind of introduction to them. Some 
may perhaps be persuaded to read this volume be- 
cause it is small ; and having read this, we trust 
they will be sufficiently interested in the subject to 
pursue it farther, and enter into a thorough inves- 
tigation of the argument in all its bearings. Tt is 
not expected that those who have made themselves 
familiar with the valuable productions which have 
been named, will give these pages a perusal — for 
such they were not intended. 

It may be well to say here, that no claims are 
advanced on the score of originality. The very 
nature of the subject is such as to show that any 
very formidable pretensions in this respect would 
be unfounded. The writer has availed himself 
ot all the materials within his reach, and only re- 
grets that he had not access to more. It is believed 
that due acknowledgments are made for debts con- 
tracted in this respect. As to the style, but little 
need be said. It has been the aim throughout 
to state every proposition in plain aud intelligi- 
ble terms, without any seeking for superlatives. 
The reader will doubtless think the language 
might have been more studied, and he will per- 
haps discover not a few transgressions of the rules 
of composition ; but if he understands thef argu- 
ment without difficulty, we will not occupy his 
time with apologies. 



CONTENT S 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER - 9 
CHAPTER I. 

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. OBJECTIONS. 

Sect. I. — An examination of the argument against the 
existence of a Supreme Intelligence founded 
upon the laws of Nature - — - 15 

Sect. II. — An examination of the argument founded on 

the asserted eternity of matter - 23 

Sect. III. — An examination of the argument founded up- 
on the laws of matter, or its inherent prop- 
erties - 28 

Sect. IV. — An examination of the argument from chance 33 

CHAPTER II. I 

DIRECT EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

Sect. I. — Evidence from the human body as a whole - 44 
Sect. II. — Evidence of design in individual parts of the 
body. The arm — joints — -muscles — hand- 
heart— mouth - - * - - - 53 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



Sect. III.— Evidence from external nature — adaptation to 
the wants of man — abundance of the useful, 
and scarcity of the hurtful— the camel — the 
rein-deer — the planetary system— the combin- 
ed forces of projection and gravitation effect- 
ing the revolution of the planets - 66 

CHAPTER III. 

A REVELATION REASONABLE AND PROBABLE. INSUFFICIENCY OF THE 
LIGHT OF NATURE. 

Sect. I. — A revelation reasonable and probable — from the 
wisdom of God — from the practical admission 
of all nations in all ages — from the goodness 



of God ------- 74 

Sect. II. — The light of Nature not adequate to the wants 
of man — shown from pagans of the present 
day — from the doctrines of ancient philoso- 
phers—of modern philosophers - - - 81 



CHAPTER IV. 

NECESSITY OF A REVELATION PROVED FROM THE RELIGIONS AND 
MORALS OF THE WORLD PREVIOUS TO CHRISTIANITY. IS 
THAT NECESSITY ANSWERED BY CHRISTIANITY % 

Sect. L— Religious opinions. 1. Opinions respecting God. 

2. Religious worship. 3. Origin of the world. 



4. Origin of the human race. 5. A future 
state. Corrections offered by Christianity - 95 
Sect. II. — Morals. 1. Ofphilosophy. 2. Jurisprudence. 

3. Religion, The morality of Christianity as 
corrective of these - - - - - 106 



CHAPTER V. 

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY. 

Sect. I. — Were there Christians eighteen hundred years 
ago % The continued evidence of history from 
the present day upward to the time of Christ 130 



CONTENTS. 



Vll 



CHAPTER VI. 

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE CONTINUED. 

Sect. I. — Were the books which compose the New Testa- 
ment written by the disciples of Christ ? Ar- 
gument from circumstances - 138 
Sect. It— Direct historical evidence - 144 
Sect. Ill— Have the books of the New Testament been 

corrupted T - - - - - 169 

CHAPTER VII. 

INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 

Sect. I. — Argument from the character of the religion 

and of its Author - 184 

Sect. II. — Argument from the simplicity and circumstan- 
tiality of the history 195 

Sect. III. — Argument from the honesty of the writers in 

recording their own faults - 202 

Sect. IV.— Argument from the fact that many of the 
events are precisely what we should expect un- 
der the given circumstances - - - - 209 

Sect. V. — Argument from the nature of the facts men- 
tioned, which, if false, would have led to im- 
mediate exposure - 220 

CHAPTER VIII. 

external evidence for the truth of the gospel history. 

Sect. I — Argument from the acknowledgments of the 

early opposers of Christianity - - - 230 

Sect. II. — Argument from the rapid progress of Chris- 
tianity on its first appearance - - - 239 

Sect. III. — Argument from the sufferings of the first 

Christians ------- 252 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



Sect. IV.— Argument from existing institutions. Lord's 
Supper — First day of the week. The conclu- 
sion of the whole argument - - - 258 

CHAPTER IX. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

Sect. I: — Hume's argument agaiDst miracles - - 272 
Sect. II. — Miscellaneous objections to the Christian mir- 
acles. False miracles. Ignorance of the age 
in which they were wrought. "Why was not 
the whole Jewish nation converted % - - 282 
Sect. III. — The differences or variations in the Gospel 
Histories. Trial of Mr. Paine's "incontro- 
vertible position." Its absurdity - 293 

Conclusion --------- 303 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



1. Every one who is in the habit of looking around 
him in the world, must be satisfied that, within a few 
years, the progress of Infidelity has been great. It is 
certain that the number of those who have fallen within 
its influence, is, at the present time, by no means small ; 
and it is equally certain that this fact may be traced to 
well known causes, to causes wholly independent of 
argument for or against Christianity. It must be evi- 
dent to all who have had the benefit of observation in 
this respect, that not a few of those who are Infidels 
know but very little of the history, or indeed of the prin- 
ciples, of that religion which they have rejected as mere 
fable. 

2. This remark, it is readily admitted, will not apply 
to all w r ho have cast aside the faith of Christ. The wri- 
ter is acquainted with some, for whom he has ever enter- 
tained sentiments of respect, men who have doubtless 
read much on the subject, and w r hose present unbelief 
is the result of this reading. But even here he is in- 
clined to the opinion, that the works which have been 
perused, are principally those which have been written 
against the Christian religion, while those written in 

2 



to 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTFR. 



reply to them, and in support of the Christian religion, 
have been mostly, if not altogether neglected. And it 
is verily believed that if such persons would read the 
same amount for Christianity, that they read against it, 
the complexion of their views and feelings with regard 
to its truth and value, would be essentially changed. 

3. Aside from these, however,the remark already made 
is true, that a large number of the unbelievers of the 
present age are in a great measure ignorant of the very 
nature of the Christian religion, and altogether ignorant 
of the external evidences by which its advocates attempt 
to prove it, what it professes to be, a religion from God. 
They are Infidels not because they know, but because 
they do not know. They have never taken the trouble 
to acquaint themselves with the historical proof for the 
truth of the Gospel records, they have never studied 
those labored and conclusive works that have been writ- 
ten in their defence. They know nothing about these 
things, and it is to be doubted if the majority of them 
ever heard of a half dozen works of this character. 
This is not meant in severity, but as a simple statement 
of what is believed to be the facts of the case, of what 
might unquestionably be established, if examination 
were made, by numerous examples. 

4. If, then, these persons will not inform themselves 
with regard to these particulars, it is surely nothing very 
surprising that they should be turned aside by specious 
and seemingly plausible objections, aided, as they usu- 
ally are, by an accompaniment of sneers and sarcasms. 
It is not at all to be wondered at, that such individuals 
should be sceptical, when the little knowledge they 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



11 



have on the subject, if knowledge it maybe called, is all 
on one side, and that with the laugh in its favor. They 
hear these objections and sneers every day; they are re- 
peated again and again by those who have learned 
them, and, having nothing to offer on the other side, and 
supposing because they have not, nothing can be offer- 
ed, it is perfectly natural that they should at last become 
Infidels, and yet the Christian argument be not in the 
least affected by such results. Every one can and must 
see, that they are Infidels, because they are entirely un- 
acquainted with the evidences for the truth of Chris- 
tianity. 

5. Another cause to which is owing much of the In- 
fidelity of the present age, is the vain and silly notions, 
so prevalent among a certain class, in relation to what 
is termed Philosophy. Young men imagine now, that 
they have only to reject Christianity, and pronounce it 
all imposition and priestcraft, and they are philosophers 
at once. It seems to be the received opinion among 
them, that universal scepticism is evidence of a great 
mind ; and nothing, in the estimation of such, can be 
surer proof of intellectual superiority, than to treat all 
religion as mere fable, fit only to amuse women and 
children. Hence come the wild and groundless as- 
sertions touching Christianity, which are so often and 
so confidently repeated, and hence the many rude obser- 
vations, and ruder jests respecting its meek and benevo- 
lent Author. These things are regarded as demonstra- 
tions of having risen above the common herd of man- 
kind, and outgrown their prejudices and superstitions. 
And there is a certain pride they feel in plunging thus 



12 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



fearlessly into the whirlpool of Infidelity, while lesser 
minds tremble even to approach the brink. They flat- 
ter themselves that they are looked up to by the multi- 
tude as men of courage and sense. 

6. But we would assure these young men, in friendly 
language, that they mistake. Scepticism is not philoso- 
phy, nor is unbelief any evidence of knowledge or of 
superior strength of mind. There is a wide difference 
between the two, and it is a difference well deserving 
their attention. The gaping crowd may wonder to 
hear them treat with levity, things that other men have 
been wont to regard as sacred — those of like spirit with 
themselves may call it Philosophy — but they may be 
satisfied that men of calm and sober judgment will look 
upon their conduct with feelings very wide from these. 
The pretensions of Christianity, whether true or false, 
are of too serious a nature to be trifled with. The ex- 
istence of a supreme and all-ruling Intelligence — his 
character and government — whether we are his offspring 
or friendless orphans in the broad waste of the world — 
whether we live for to-day only, and then go down for- 
ever in darkness and nothingness, or whether there is 
beyond this an existence of endless advancement, and 
glory, and happiness — these are questions concerning 
which poor human nature can never cheat itself into in- 
difference, and they are questions, which no man of re- 
flection, which no philosopher, will approach but with 
sober thought. And those young men do sadly mis- 
take the nature of true philosophy, and the character of 
a great mind, who think to give evidence of possessing 
either, by treating these momentous subjects with con- 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



13 



tempt, or ridicule, or any thing that borders upon light- 
ness. 

7. If this does not satisfy them, if they will yet in- 
dulge the vain dream that the rejection of Christiani- 
ty makes them philosophers, and brings them into the 
society of great minds, we have one farther request to 
make of them. It is, that they will compare themselves 
and the leaders of modern scepticism, with such men as 
Pascal, Grotius, Blackstone, Seldon, Melmoth, Lardner, 
Priestley, Brown, Boerhave, Addison, Johnson, Whis- 
ton, Euler, Ferguson, Bacon, Locke, Boyle, John Kepler, 
Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Isaac Newton, and a host of 
others of the same class. These are men than whom no 
greater ever lived, men whose names will be honored 
as long as learning, science, and philosophy shall have 
being ; yet these were all modest and humble believers 
in the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. We desire the 
young men of whom we speak, to pause a moment here, 
and contrast themselves with these giant minds, and 
then, if they will, talk about philosophy, and the credu- 
lity and weakness of Christians. 

8. A few words farther, and we have done. As has 
been already observed, there is reason to believe that a 
large proportion of the Infidels of the present day, are 
so, not because they know, but because they do not 
know, because they are ignorant of the merits of the 
great question at issue. And we do verily believe that 
any man of a candid mind, who will come calmly to 
the examination of the evidences for Christianity, and 
will go through the examination uninfluenced by hos- 
tility or prejudice— we do believe, that that man will 



14 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



rise from the finished task a Christian. If there are 
those who choose to scoff, rather than make this inves- 
tigation, we would say to them, in the words of another, 
tC It becomes you to consider, with great seriousness and 
attention, whether it can be for your interest to esteem a 
few witty sarcasms, or metaphysical subtleties, or igno- 
rant misrepresentations, or unwarranted assertions, as 
unanswerable arguments against revelation ; and a very 
slight reflection will convince you, that it will certainly 
be for your reputation, to employ the flippancy of your 
rhetoric, and the poignancy of your ridicule, upon any 
subject, rather than upon the subject of religion." 

9. In closing, we urge every unbeliever to make the 
investigation for himself: we are far from wishing any 
one to trust the word of Christians for the truth of their 
religion. We wish all to examine it, to sift it to the 
bottom, and not to hold it unless they find it good. If 
the present volume shall lead any to enter into such an 
examination, its object will have been gained. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. OBJECTIONS. 

SECTION I. 

AN EXAMINATION OF THE ARGUMENT AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF A 
SUPREME INTELLIGENCE, FOUNDED UPON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

1. As the existence of a Supreme Intelligence lies at 
the very base of Christianity, and as all attempts to es- 
tablish the truth of the latter, without having first estab- 
lished the truth of the former, would be regarded by the 
unbeliever as premature and vain ; we shall therefore 
make this the starting point in our observations. It may 
seem, perhaps, to some a work of supererogation, to en- 
ter upon the discussion of a question which is regarded, 
by not a few, as having only one side ; bat our answer 
is found partly in what has just been stated, that the 
truth of this is the foundation on which the Christian 
system must rest, and partly in the fact, that, however 
strange it may appear for reasonable beings to deny the 
existence of God, surrounded as they are with the innu- 
merable witnesses of this truth, it must nevertheless be 



16 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

admitted that many do deny it, and offer what they deem 
sufficient reasons for this denial. Under these circum- 
stances, then, it becomes our duty to meet these reasons 
or arguments, not by pronouncing them absurdities at 
the outset, because this will not satisfy those who ad- 
vance them, but by patiently and candidly examining 
them, and pointing out their irrelevancy, or want of 
consistency or force, or whatever may be their peculiar 
weakness. It is our design to meet in this spirit some 
of the objections to the being of an Intelligent First 
Cause of all things ; or, perhaps with more propriety it 
might be said, some of the arguments offered by way of 
showing that there is no evidence which necessarily 
proves the existence of such a Supreme Intelligence. 
Having done this, we shall bring forward some of the 
evidences which go to establish this fact, as we think, 
beyond question. 

2. Much has been said about the laws of Nature, — 
they have been a favorite theme upon which some have 
delighted to expatiate in all the luxury of metaphysical 
philosophy, and their harmony, regularity, power and 
efficiency have been extolled in terms of rapturous 
praise. These laws, it is affirmed, are sufficient, and 
more than sufficient, for the production of all the won- 
derful and mighty effects which we behold around us, 
and which we call the works of God. But while we 
much admire the poetry and beauty of these descriptions 
of Nature, we have some doubt of the propriety of dei- 
fying her laws, and we cannot but call in question that 
philosophy which ascribes to them Omnipotence, Om- 
niscience, and an universal and ever active benevolence ; 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 17 



for such are the principles which we see in operation in 
the mighty machinery of the universe. This must be 
admitted by the worshipper of reason, and the child of 
science : he cannot, he will not deny that less than al- 
mighty power and unlimited wisdom could control and 
direct the ten thousand times ten thousand worlds which 
the discoveries of astronomy have unveiled to our view ; 
— he must admit this, wmether he ascribe the pow r er and 
wisdom to a God or to the laws of Nature. But here 
let us pause a moment, and ask the objector what he 
means by the laws of Nature, because unless we have a 
clear and definite conception of this particular, all our 
labor will be misspent. 

3. What then does he mean by Nature 1 The 
earth, the solar system, the universe of systems, suns, 
and planets ? From the manner in w T hich the expres- 
sion is used we should judge this to be its signification, 
and it is presumed that the correctness of this w r ill not 
be disputed. But we must be permitted to say to the 
objector here, that he assumes the very question in de- 
bate. It is for him to show how these systems, suns, 
fee, came to exist in the first place. Does he still af- 
firm that they were produced by the operation of the 
laws of Nature 1 but these are Nature itself, and it is for 
the existence of this Nature that we wish him to account. 
Let us look at this a little more closely. We ask how 
the earth, for example, w T ith its regularity of form and 
motion, and all its beauty of scenery and variety of ani- 
mal life, came into being 1 We are told that it was the 
effect of the laws of earth ; but this does not answer the 
question, — earth could have had no laws until it was 



18 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



earth. To talk therefore about the laws of earth, before 
the existence of earth, is unphilosophical, and involves 
a contradiction in language. It is only necessary to 
make the application of this argument to nature, and the 
difficulty of the objector will at once be made manifest. 
The inquiry is, how Nature, by which he means the 
universe of worlds, with all their connections and influ- 
ences, came to exist ? The reply is, It is the result of 
the laws of Nature. But Nature could have had no 
laws until it had an existence, and it is this existence 
which the unbeliever is called upon to explain, and for 
which he is required to assign a cause. Until this is 
done it is all in vain to talk about the laws of Nature, 
because that is a point in the discussion which we have 
not yet reached ; we must account for the thing itself, 
before we make its laws the ground for argument. 

4. As there has been much indefinite and even loose 
reasoning concerning this particular, it will not be 
thought out of place perhaps to extend our remarks a 
little. No man who wishes to arrive at truth, will in- 
dulge in the use of any terms without a clear and distinct 
meaning being attached to them, at least in his own 
mind. No single circumstance has done more to re- 
tard the progress of science and knowledge, and to per- 
petuate the dominion of error, than the repetition of 
words and phrases, with which those who employ them 
have connected no definite ideas. It cannot be expected 
that we should enable others to understand us, if we do 
not understand ourselves, and have no just and well- 
defined conceptions of what we mean to convey by the 
terms we use. If the premises of our positions are not 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 19 

clear and intelligible to our own minds, it cannot be sup- 
posed that the conclusions drawn from them will be in- 
telligible to the minds of others. Notwithstanding, 
however, this is so important a point, there is reason 
to believe that the expression " laws of Nature," is in the 
mouths of a vast proportion of those who use it, a phrase 
without meaning, a phrase by which they do not them- 
selves know what they intend to signify. This appears 
from the assertion so often made, and which has been 
noticed, that the laws of Nature are adequate to the pro- 
duction of Nature itself. It must be evident to every one 
who will reflect a moment, that nothing can be more in- 
consistent than to suppose the natural causes which we 
see in operation around us, formed our world in all its 
beauty and harmony. So far from this, they are the re- 
sult of that formation, and could not have existed had 
not that formation existed before them. Hence the as- 
signing the laws of Nature as the producing cause of 
the universe, is reversing the order of things, and making 
that the cause which is only an effect, or rather it is 
making an effect its own cause, which is certainly 
illogical and at war, length and breadth, with all true 
philosophy. Let it be fixed in the mind then that the 
laws of Nature could not have had a being until after 
the construction of Nature, that they arise from the com- 
bination of things, from their several positions, and mu- 
tual relations to each other ; in one word, that they are 
the streams and not the fountains, the offspring and not 
the parent of creation. Let these facts be kept in the 
van of argument, and the objector required to meet them 



20 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

fairly, and it will be found that he is thrown back again 
to his starting place. 

5. For the purpose of showing more clearly the 
bearing of the above reasoning we will produce an ex- 
ample by way of illustration. Take the case of water, 
the constituents of which are hydrogen and oxygen, in 
the proportion of one part by weight of hydrogen to 
7 1-2 parts of oxygen, and two parts by bulk of hydro- 
gen to one of oxygen. The inquiry is, How came these 
gases to combine in these definite proportions so as to 
form water ? It must be remembered that there can be 
no laws of water until it is made ; " but oxygen and hy- 
drogen," says a judicious writer, "no more tend to form 
water, nor of themselves could form it, than any other 
of the numerous things which also consist of them. 
Neither oxygen nor hydrogen could, or ever would 
move itself in that exact proportion, and so unite with 
the other as to form water. To suppose them able to 
separate themselves from their several elementary accu- 
mulations in the precise quantities necessary to form the 
aqueous fluid, and to agree together to combine in these 
quantities only, and in firm and lasting union, is to give 
to each of them a mind, a thought, a foresight, a plan, a 
will, a resolution, and a spontaneous self-motive for this 
special purpose, which would make every particle of 
each an intelligent, thinking, and choosing being. This 
idea would be preposterous." # " As soon as water was 



* Cicero sneers at the Stoic, for supposing that " the world was a wise 
creature, and had a mind, which, by its own agency, constructed its frame, and 
still moves and governs it." Cic. Lucul. p. 92. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 21 



formed, the properties and the laws of water would be- 
gin. They could not have any anterior existence. 
They are not in the oxygen ; they are not in the hydro- 
gen. They could not be before water was. This is a 
clear and decided example, how the laws of Nature and 
the properties of things arise from creation, and subse- 
quent to it, and never form or produce it ; for the same 
reasoning is applicable to every substance of Nature, and 
to all its laws and agencies." # 

6. The preceding argument, is, we think, irresistible. 
The unbeliever may indeed say that the combination of 
the oxygen and hydrogen so as to form water was owing 
entirely to their affinity for each other ; but in saying this, 
he abandons the original position, and destroys his own 
argument. If it was the affinity for each other of 
its materials and their consequent combination, which 
formed water, then it was not produced by the laws of 
water ; and hence in the application the unbeliever ad- 
mits that the world or universe in its present state was 
not produced by the laws of Nature, but was owing to 
the tendency or affinity of the substances of which it is 
composed. We have done, then, with that doctrine 
which teaches that Nature is the effect of the laws of 
Nature. The argument is now placed upon a new 
ground, but not a less difficult one for the objector. He 
affirms that water is the result of the affinity which ox- 
ygen and hydrogen have for each other, and which 
causes them to unite in its formation. But does he not 
perceive that this only removes the difficulty one step 



* Turner's Sacred History of the World, v. ii. p. 277—8. 



22 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

backward without solving it ? The inquiry now is, 
How came oxygen and hydrogen to exist ? or, if we 
make a direct use of this illustration again, we ask, If 
the universe as it is now, was the effect of the mutual 
affinity of its materials, how came these materials into 
being 1 It will be seen that such an answer is no ex- 
planation of the phenomena ; — the existence of these ma- 
terials is still to be accounted for, and the task of ex- 
planation on this point will be found no more easy than 
on the other. If the unbeliever can tell us how these 
came to exist at the first, he will have accomplished 
something, — otherwise he is yet in the dark. 



SECTION II. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ARGUMENTS FOUNDED ON THE ASSERTED 
ETERNITY OF MATTER. 

1. To relieve himself from the difficulty of the pre- 
ceding argument, the unbeliever will probably resort to 
the old assertion, that matter is eternal. We know of 
but one argument that has ever been advanced to prove 
the eternity of matter, and that is grounded upon anoth- 
er assertion, that it is indestructible. But here likewise 
we call for proof. If in reply to this call it be said that 
we cannot destroy a single particle of anybody, nor an- 
nihilate so much as one atom, it is readily granted. 
But what then 1 Does it follow from this that matter is 
indestructible 1 We cannot do a great many things 
which can nevertheless be done. Because we cannot 
destroy a single grain or atom, it is by no means cer- 
tain, therefore, that it cannot be destroyed. We cannot 
create a single atom ; and the abstract argument drawn 
from this fact, has the same force against the existence 
of matter, as the one just named has against its de- 
struction. 

2. However, be this as it may, we regard the point 
as having but very little bearing upon the question at 



24 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



issue. Suppose we grant that matter is eternal, or that 
the materials of which the universe is composed have 
existed from eternity ; what advantage does the unbe- 
liever derive from this admission ? Certainly none- 
whatever ; his course is involved in the same darkness 
as before. A moment's consideration will show this. 
Does the eternity of matter explain all the wonderful 
phenomena of the world around us ? Does it account 
for the order and harmony of the solar system — for the 
regular and exact revolutions of the planets — for the 
complicate, yet nicely balanced influences by which for 
ages they have been kept in play without once deviating 
from their path ? Does it account for the ten thousand 
forms of animal and vegetable organization which are 
found on the surface of our globe 1 Does it account for 
the existence of that wonderful creature, man ; and solve 
the mystery of mind ? # Not one of these questions can 
be answered in the affirmative, not one of these problems 
is solved by the eternity of matter. 

3. It is repeated, therefore, that if we grant the unbe- 



* Suppose any parcel or lump of matter eternal, and at rest — how came it to 
move? It is impossible that it should have added motion to itself. This 
must have been given it by some other power. But suppose motion eternal 
too ; yet matter, unthinking matter and motion, could never produce thought. 
If so, why is it not the case now ? why do we not see the mud of the street, 
when set in motion by the waggon wheel, bringing forth mind, forming itself 
into an intelligent being? If simple matter and motion have overproduced 
thought, there is no reason why they should not in this age. Or if, as certain 
philosophers affirm, thought is the effect of organization, which is in turn the 
production of the elements, why do not the elements fall into such productions 
now? If they ever did in any age or country bring forth the organization in 
question, it is a weighty inquiry, which the philosophical sceptic is desired to 
answer, — why have they not continued from that time to the present to bring 
forth such organization ? 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 25 

liever all for which he contends in this respect, it does 
not lighten the burthen of his difficulties, nor aid him 
one step in his progress. He has still to account for 
the wisdom and intelligence every where visible in the 
natural world ; he has still to explain the design and 
contrivance which appear in every department of the 
universe that has come within our observation, and to 
inform us how dead unconscious matter could think, 
reason, determine, and adopt the stupendous plan, for 
plan it is, call it by what name he may, according to 
which the affairs of that universe were at first carried 
into operation, and have ever since been directed. All 
this labor, even if we allow that matter is eternal, is yet 
before the unbeliever, and we call upon him to come 
forth to the task, and show us how these things can be, 
and remove the difficulties still in his way. 

4. But the great mistake in this argument remains to 
be noticed, and it is one which seems to us unfortunate 
for him who adopts this method of reasoning, to prove 
" there is no God." Why does the sceptic refuse to be- 
lieve the world was created ? Because this would pre- 
suppose a God, And why does he deny the existence 
of a God ? ^The reply is, that he cannot conceive of an 
uncreated self-existent being. And does he deny the 
existence of every thing he cannot conceive or compre- 
hend ? Does he understand the nature of mind? Does 
he know why or how he thinks ? Does he compre- 
hend the process by which the acorn becomes an oak: — 
by which the nourishment it draws from earth is 
changed to wood? We venture to say, No. But does 
he, therefore, refuse to believe that mind exists, or that 
3 



26 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

the acorn produces an oak ? Does he fully understand 
the nature and essence of magnetism and electricity 1 
But does he deny that there are such fluids ! Does he 
" comprehend the primary cause of the light, by which 
he sees ; or of the elasticity of the air, by which he 
hears ; or of the fire, by which he is warmed! n Can 
he tell what first gave motion to the heart or the lungs? 
or what continues it ! Can he explain the cause of an- 
imal heat % Does he know what gravitation is ! To 
none of these questions can he give an affirmative an- 
swer. But because he cannot comprehend these things, 
does he therefore refuse to believe in the existence of 
light, and air, and heat ? Does he deny that the heart 
and lungs move, or that there is such an influence or 
principle as gravity ? No ; in the existence of all these 
he believes without hesitation. Where then is the pro- 
priety or the philosophy of denying the existence of 
God, because he cannot comprehend it ? But the ab- 
surdity of this is yet to come. 

5. He will not believe in God, because he cannot 
conceive of an uncreated, self-existent being ; and asks, 
with a sort of triumph, Who made God ! And with 
the same tone of triumph we might ask, Who made 
matter ! He asserts that matter is eternal, and on this 
ground we put the question to him, If he can any more 
easily conceive of uncreated, self-existent matter, than he 
can of uncreated, self-existent Intelligence! To most 
minds, it is presumed, the former would come loaded 
with as much obscurity, and as many difficulties as the 
latter ; yet the sceptic unhesitatingly receives the one, 
and as unhesitatingly rejects the other. By what phi- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 27 



losophical or logical rules he does this, we know not ; 
but one thing w T e know, that the very admission of the 
eternity and self-existence of matter, destroys the foun- 
dation of his theory, and deprives him of all farther ob- 
jection to the being of a God. For by whatever rule he 
proves the eternity and self-existence of matter, by the 
same rule we pledge ourselves to prove the eternity and 
self-existence of Intelligence. We say to him then — 
proceed to the proof, and every step you take for your- 
self is one for us, and whenever you establish your own 
position, you establish ours by the side of it ; — and if 
you can believe the one, it will require no greater stretch 
of faith to believe the other. 

6. It may be, however, that the sceptic will say here, 
that, the eternity of matter admitted, it possesses certain 
inherent properties or laws, which may have effected 
the present arrangement of things. This is mere as- 
sertion, and we might meet it with a contrary assertion, 
and there leave it. But, if granted, it does not change 
the compJexion of the preceding argument. It is still 
true, that the same rule which proves the eternity of 
matter, will also prove the eternity of Intelligence ; it 
is still true that it is as easy to conceive of, and to be- 
lieve, the one as the other. Nevertheless, as we are not 
disposed to avoid any argument which may be offered, 
we shall give this assertion an examination in the next 
section. 



SECTION III. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ARGUMENT FOUNDED UPON THE LAWS OF 
MATTER. 

1. As another way of avoiding the evidence for the 
being of a God, drawn from the design and contrivance 
manifest in the world around us, it has been said that the 
inherent laws of matter are sufficient to have produced 
that harmony to which we give so much weight. But 
there is a failure in this supposition ; it does not cover 
the whole ground; for there are some principles in op- 
eration which could not possibly have been the result 
of these laws, inasmuch as they are directly opposed to 
them. One or two examples will suffice to show this. 
It is a law of matter, that a body, whether in a state of 
motion or rest, will continue in that state forever, unless 
acted upon by some foreign force. Bat all bodies in 
motion are acted upon by foreign force, as air, &c, and 
consequently must at last come to a state of rest. A ball, 
for example, thrown from the mouth of a cannon, would, 
were there no opposing influence, continue forever in 
a straight line ; but, its motion being continually retarded 
by gravity and the resistance of the air, it scon falls to 
the ground. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 29 

2. Apply this to the earth, and we shall immediately 
perceive the difficulty which it casts up in the way of 
the unbeliever's theory. The earth, in its revolution 
round the sun, is constantly passing through a resisting 
medium, and therefore, according to this law of matter, 
its motion should long since have ceased. Yet it is 
still ploughing its way through the upper deep, without 
being affected in the least by this opposing influence. 
Here then the sceptic is met on the very threshold with 
a difficulty of no trifling character ; he finds his inherent 
properties of matter at direct variance with his position. 
How will he explain this ? How account for it that the 
earth continues to roll on with undiminished velocity 
through this continually resisting medium ; and that in 
direct violation of this law of matter ? — He cannot ac- 
count for it, save by reference to the sustaining and di- 
recting hand of Omnipotence. 

3. Another law of matter is that of gravitation, or 
the property which all bodies have of tending to the 
centre. By the operation of this law, the earth has a 
constant tendency toward the sun. It is well known 
that at the same time the earth has a constant tendency 
to fly off from the sun, or from its orbit, and that, by the 
action of these two opposite forces, it is thrown round it 
in nearly a circle. Now it must be perfectly obvious to 
all that both these tendencies cannot be laws of matter, 
because they are plainly at war with each other ; the 
first acting in one direction, and the last in another the 
reverse of it. If then it be a law of matter that the 
earth should tend to the centre, or the sun, it certainly 
cannot be a law of matter that it should at the same time 



30 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

fly off from the sun. Here then, again, the sceptic is 
famished with a problem which he will not find it easy 
to solve in accordance with the principles of his philoso- 
phy — a problem which he cannot solve without the ad- 
mission of Supreme Power and Wisdom. If he were 
to see a stone whirling past him, he would at once con- 
clude, that some one had thrown it, because he would 
know that the tendency of the stone was to remain on 
the earth, and that it could not therefore fly off from it. 
Hence he would reason that it must have been projected 
by some one, or it never would have left the earth, nev- 
er would have been in motion ; — and so, by the same 
rule, it is proved, that the earth must have been project- 
ed by some one, or it never would have had motion. 
In other words, motion is opposed to the law of matter 
under consideration — it could not therefore have been 
produced by this, and consequently must be the work 
of some other power. This difficulty also, connected 
with the inherent properties of matter, must be removed 
before the unbeliever's theory can be established. 

4. There is another great error in this reasoning 
about the laws of matter, which lies in the not making 
a proper distinction between the laws of matter and the 
dispositions of matter, or the relative situation of one 
portion to another. This is a distinction of great im- 
portance in the argument, and yet it has been almost 
entirely overlooked. Let us take an illustration, that 
our meaning may be made plain. It is a law of steel, 
for example, that it shall cut when sharp ; but it is not a 
1 aw of steel that it shall be sharp. This is the result of 
another power. It is a law of sulphur, charcoal* &c a 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 31 

that when united in certain definite proportions they shall 
possess an explosive power ; but it is not a law of sul- 
phur, charcoal, &c. that they shall unite in these definite 
proportions. This is the effect of calculation. It is a 
law of the main-spring that it shall be elastic, of glass, 
that it shall be transparent: but it is not a law of either 
of these that it should take its respective place in the 
watch. The springs, wheels, chains, &c. may have 
been in possession of their several laws, from eternity, if 
you please, and yet never have formed a watch. The 
dispositions of these in their relative positions is the 
work of intelligence. 

5. This, then, is the distinction which we would 
make between the laws and the dispositions of matter in 
relation to the universe. The laws of matter never 
could have formed it into a world, never could have 
made the present dispositions of it. " If ever a time 
was when the structure and dispositions of matter under 
the present economy of things, were not — there is no 
force known in nature, and no combination of forces 
that can account for their commencement. The laws 
of matter may keep up the working of the machinery, 
but they did not and could not set up the machine." # 
The argument, therefore, from the laws*or inherent 
properties of matter, fails to account for the present or- 
der of things. 

6. There is but one other refuge, and that a despe- 
rate one, to which the sceptic can retreat. He will 



* Chalmers . See Bridgewater Treatises, i. 25,j to which we are indebted for 
this last argument. 



32 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



now affirm that the whole may have been the result of 
chance, that matter must necessarily have had some 
forms and dispositions, and they may as well have been 
such as they are, as any others. This position shall be 
examined in the next section. 



SECTION IV. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ARGUMENT FROM CHANCE. 

1. It would seem that no supposition can be more un- 
reasonable than that which attributes to the effect of 
chance, the creation of the world, the organization of 
man, and other equally wonderful phenomena with 
which we are surrounded. It can hardly be credited, 
that even the wildest and most visionary fancy could 
have conceived such an extravagant idea.* Its absurd- 
ity and absolute impossibility will be fully seen, if we 
attempt to make a single practical application of it. 
Let us consider, for example, what chance must have 
accomplished before it could have made a man. To 
have effected this, it must have happened that bone 
formed itself, and then assumed the shape of a globe — 
matter must accidentally have combined in such a re- 



*"How long," says Bishop Tillotson, " might twenty thousand blind men, 
who should be sent out from several remote parts of England, wander up and 
down, before they would all meet upon Salisbury Plain, and fall into rank 
and file in the exact order of an army ? And yet, this is much more easy to be 
imagined, than how the innumerable blind parts of matter should rendezvous 
themselves into a world. How long might a man be in sprinkling colors upon 
canvass with a careless hand, before they would happen to make the exact pic- 
ture of a man ? And is a man easier made by chance than his picture ?" 



34 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

markable manner, as to have produced brain, and this 
must have chanced to fall into the globe of bone, — and 
so came the head. This needed eyes, ears, &c, con- 
sequently a most astounding concurrence of atoms hap- 
pened to result in the formation of an eye, with all its 
complicate apparatus for vision ; and stranger still, by 
another most skilfully fortuitous concurrence, there hap- 
pened to come up another eye, a perfect fac-simile of 
the former ; and then very fortunately both happened to 
pop right into the holes which happened to be made for 
them. Other atoms, following the example of those 
just named, fell to happening, and so brought forth two 
ears, which happened to jump into their respective places 
in the same way. Then came another lucky concourse, 
and gave birth to a nose, which very properly took its 
place where we find it. And finally, the whole atomic 
world happened to take the hint that a man was to be 
formed, and set fortuitously to work. Soon there ap- 
peared a portion of atoms ranging themselves under the 
nose in such way as to leave an opening for the mouth, 
and then the teeth, which other atoms had formed, came 
marching up in regular order, and, filing off at the en- 
trance to right and left, took up their several positions 
in true military style, chance leading the van. In 
another quarter atoms happened to come together in the 
shape of sinews, muscles, nerves, vessels, &c, and set 
to forming one arm here, and another there, hands, 
feet, legs, and so on to the end of the chapter. When 
these had all happened to be made, then, as by common 
consent, they happened to move towards each other, and, 
giving and receiving mutual salutations, united, and thus 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 35 



formed the frame of a man. Then the blood happened 
to commence circulation, because the heart happened to 
take to contracting and dilating ; and the lungs hap- 
pened to draw in the air, because this happened to be 
indispensably necessary to the blood. But, more won- 
derful yet, just at this momeut, something happened to 
begin to think, and being pleased with it, kept on think- 
ing, until, with the consent and co-operation of the body, 
it thought itself into a man. Such was the first feat of 
chance ; but it did not stop here. As if to heap wonder 
upon wonder, and make that stranger which was strang- 
est already, another routine of fortuitous concurrence 
casually happened, and proved to be precisely like the 
other, inasmuch as it ended in the production of another 
being of the same kind with the former.* This closed 
the drama, for certain it is that, for some unaccountable 
reason, chance has never attempted the thing since, nor 
made any approximation to it. 

2. Will it be said by the sceptic that this is ridicule, 
that it is an unfair way of stating the question ? If so, 
will he show us how it can be more fairly stated ? In- 
deed we have no conception of any method by which to 
explain the formation of man from chance, that will not 



* Every one knows that there must have been originally a man and a wo- 
man: consequently chance must have hit twice on the same fortuitous con- 
currence. Suppose the man to have lived an hundred years, the woman must 
have been formed in that space of time. Admit the sceptic's assertion that 
our race has existed millions of years — is it not queer, then, that chance should 
have been so fortunate, as to have produced this astonishing organization 
twice in the brief space of an hundred years, and in the long lapse of millions 
of ages should not have stumbled upon it again ? nor even have hit upon an 
eye, or a hand, or a mouth, or some such trifle ? To us it is very queer. 



36 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

make it appear in some such light as that in which we 
have just seen it. If it be ridiculous, it is owing* to the 
subject itself, and not to the exposition of it. We frank- 
ly confess that we have not the power to make it more 
ludicrous than it really is. The unbeliever may com- 
plain, but he complains without cause; we have pre- 
sented his theory in its true light, and if, when seen in 
its naked folly, he becomes ashamed of it, let him not 
say that it is ridicule, or that we have stated the case 
unfairly. There is no call for ridicule, no necessity 
for forced argument. The idea that the human body 
with its admirable and unequalled mechanism, that the 
countless forms of animal and vegetable organization, 
that the world with all its harmony and beauty — the idea 
that these are but the effect of blind chance, carries upon 
its very face an absurdity too palpable to be made more 
so by borrowed ridicule. 

3. It will avail nothing here to say, that matter must 
have had some forms, and that they were as likely to be 
such as they are as any other. This is but a refuge of 
words ; it does not remove the absurdity. Because 
matter must have had some forms, does it follow, that 
these must have been an eye, an ear, or a heart ? If so, 
why should it not take the form of a cotton factory, a 
steam engine, or even a stage coach ? There are an 
hundred probabilities for either of these, to one for a 
man. Or, if the planetary system owes its existence to 
the fact that matter must have had some form, why do 
we not see matter occasionally taking the form of a 
twelve inch globe, or an orrery 1 This would be far ea- 
sier for it. But suppose we grant that matter may have 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 37 



formed itself into an eye, does this prove that the eye 
must have taken its place in the head 1 why not in the 
foot, or in the back? Or, if matter took the form of a 
heart, why should this have been just where it was 
wanted ? why was it not in the head, or at the end of 
the arm ? So that, after all, this attempt to escape from 
the absurdity is frustrated. The unbeliever is again 
reduced to chance, and is forced to admit not only that 
chance made the several parts of the human body, but 
that it also arranged and put them together, and then, 
to crown the whole, set the machinery to working, and 
has kept it working ever since ! If he can believe this, 
and all the other inconsistencies associated with it, he 
must have a faith tenfold more elastic, than he who sim- 
ply believes there is a God. 

4. We are aware that there is one other shape into 
which this doctrine of chance is resolved, and which, in 
the opinion of its advocates, gives it an air of respecta- 
bility, or serves at least measurably to cover its naked- 
ness. Though it really does appear somewhat more 
decent than, the bare, brazen assertion of absolute 
chance ; yet, when analyzed, it is in truth, the same as- 
sertion, and nothing more nor less. In treating of this 
particular, however, we shall borrow directly from one 
who has handled it with the skill of a master. We need 
make no apology for the length of the extract, for we 
are satisfied that the reader will feel obliged by its in- 
sertion. 

5. " In order to lessen the difficulty of man's produc- 
tion with all that complicated and beautiful organization 
which he now possesses, we are sometimes told that he 



38 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



is not now what he was at his first formation ; that the 
primitive man probably ' differed more from the actual 
man than the quadruped from the insect ;' that something 
very imperfect was produced by the earth, or by nature, 
which in the long process of ages gradually improved 
till it became a human being. Some modern natural- 
ists have expended no small portion of labor and science 
to prove this imperceptible gradation. Nature, it is as- 
sumed, first produced animalcules, or some rude speci- 
mens of animal life, of the very lowest kind: in process 
of time, these, by an original tendency to a higher state 
of being, and influenced by external circumstances, put 
forth the rudiments of some new part or organ, which, 
in the course of many generations, became more per- 
fect ; these again, continuing in the progress of ages 
to advance, improving their organization at every step, 
formed at length the superior animals which we now 
see inhabiting the earth ; while circumstances less fa- 
vorable, left others behind in this march of improvement. 
It is further assumed, that the endeavors which the force 
of circumstances produced to exercise any power, grad- 
ually formed an organization adapted to such a power 
or faculty ; thus, in some, many efforts to swim produc- 
ed fins where they were needed ; and in others, the de- 
sire and the frequent attempts to fly, originated wings : 
and that all the varied faculties and organs which any 
animal possesses were produced in the same way ; thus 
at length, some very fortunate species, of a very high 
ancestry passed into the condition of monkeys and apes 
— and thence, by successive gradations, acquired the 
form and the rationality of human beings. There is, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 39 

however, in this theory, the same vitiating defect which 
pervades every attempt to account for all the wonders 
of the human frame, without a creating intelligence — 
that wants facts to support it. Nor is this all ; facts are 
decidedly against it. If the infusoria, those impercep- 
tible specks, myriads of which may be sporting in a 
drop of water, without being detected by the clearest 
sight in the brightest sunshine — if these microscopic 
beings be selected as the efforts of nature, so far from 
being so very deficient in organization as this system 
supposes, recent discoveries have shown that they are 
possessed of a well-constructed apparatus for digesting 
and assimilating their food, and for performing all the 
functions of life; that each, indeed possesses an organi- 
zation so exquisitely minute, and yet so completely 
adapted to its condition, as to afford in itself a strong and 
unanswerable argument for the existence of an intelli- 
gent Creator. Nor is the gradation in the scale of be- 
ing so complete as this hypothesis would assume ; there 
are so many large chasms and discrepancies as appear 
to make strongly against it. But waving these points 
we ask for proofs, for well-authenticated facts, as evi- 
dence of any one species of animals passing from a low- 
er to an essentially different and higher form of exist- 
ence. Do the whole records of history contain one 
credible instance of this transmutation of species, of this 
advance upwards, so that completely new organs are 
acquired 1 Have all the extended researches of modern 
travellers and scientific naturalists furnished an instance 
of that intermediate state which must mark the transition 
of a dog to an ape, or that of an ape to a man ? Has 



40 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



the dog, domesticated as he is, in constant intercourse 
with man, amidst all the improvements of his natural 
instincts, and his acquirement of new habits, in all the 
numerous varieties of size and shape, and color, in 
which he is found, and after all his successive genera- 
tions, put forth one new organ, or made any nearer ap- 
proach in his anatomical structure to the monkey tribe 1 
Has an orang-outang ever been discovered in his in- 
termediate stage towards a human being, either in the 
constitution of his body, in his power to utter articulate 
sounds, or in any of those exhibitions of intellect which 
form a broad and marked line of separation between 
man and the brute creation ? In the total absence of 
facts to support such a fancy, there are facts which can 
be adduced of a kind entirely opposite. We have the 
means of ascertaining, with an accuracy far surpassing 
that of verbal description, what was the anatomical struc- 
ture of many existing races of animals, three thousand 
years ago. ' It seems,' say the professors of the Mu- 
seum of Paris, 4 as if the superstition of the ancient 
Egyptians had been inspired by nature, with a view of 
transmitting to after ages a monument of her history. 
That extraordinary and whimsical people, by embalm- 
ing with so much care the brutes which were the ob- 
jects of their stupid adoration, have left us, in their sa- 
cred grottos, cabinets of zoology almost complete. The 
climate has conspired with the art of embalming to pre- 
serve the bodies from corruption ; and we can now as- 
sure ourselves by our own eyes what was the state of 
a great number of species three thousand years ago. 
We can scarcely restrain the transports of our imagina- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 41 

tion, on beholding thus preserved, with their minutest 
bones, with the smallest portions of their skin, and in 
every particular most perfectly recognisable, many an 
animal, which, at Thebes or Memphis, two or three thou- 
sand years ago, had its own priests and altars.' " Did the 
inspection of these animals, every minute part of which 
was in so complete a state of preservation, justify the vis- 
ionary theory to which we now refer? On the contrary, 
in no representative of a former race, whether wild or 
domestic, thus examined, was any specific difference 
seen, nor was there the slightest reason to suppose that 
three thousand years had in any degree altered any one 
species; but proof incontrovertible was afforded that no 
tendency to improvement, however combined with ex- 
ternal circumstances, has to this day brought up the 
ibis or the crocodile, the cat or the dog, to any higher 
state of organisation approaching towards that of a hu- 
man being ; and that no remove at all has been made 
from the rank in which they have been, and in which 
we have every reason to believe they will continue as 
long as their respective races exist. An essential part 
of this scientific fiction is, that the functions of organs, 
and the uses of parts, did not originally spring from 
their structure, but that certain acts, and habits, and 
modes of living have in reality produced every peculi- 
arity of organisation. We see, indeed, in the structure 
of animals of various kinds many provisions for repair- 
ing and healing, and even in some cases for reproducing 
a part ; these seem to arise from the same wise and be- 
nevolent intentions which appear in innumerable instan- 
ces, throughout the whole of the animal economy, as 
4 



42 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



safeguards against the many accidents to which life is 
exposed ; in all these cases, however, we see no new 
organ or faculty which removes its subject from one 
species to another. But to suppose that the continued 
desire to stand upright, and the experiment, often tried, 
to walk erect, produced that perfection of ingenious ar- 
rangement which the bones of the foot display ; that by 
the efforts of many generations, fingers grew out of the 
hand, furnished with all their joints, and muscles, and 
tendons ; and that, to render it complete, a thumb grew 
up, just in the very situation and acting in the only way 
in which it could give the hand its use and power — to 
suppose that the curious machinery of the ear was form- 
ed by the long-continued attempts to catch and distin- 
guish the vibrations of the air; — and that all the exquis- 
ite apparatus of the eye, with its coats and humors, and 
nerves, and muscles, and self-adjusting iris, was pro- 
duced by frequent attempts at seeing,— is completely the 
romance of science; and such a romance as, certainly, 
is not outdone by all the wild fictions of the Arabian 
Nights, or the ludicrous extravagancies of Lilliput or 
Brobdingnag."* 

6. Before closing this part of our subject, we have 
one word to add. When speaking, in paragraph 2, of 
the absurdities of the doctrine of chance, it was observed 
that the sceptic might call it ridicule, when in truth 
whatever of the ludicrous there might be, was the legit- 
imate offspring of his position. We repeat the same 



* Godwin against Atheism, pp. 214 — 220. This is a volume of the very first 
class, and deserves most richly to be universally read. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 43 



here. We mean nothing of ridicule, but we insist, at 
the same time, that the sceptic shall not charge the in- 
consistencies and absurdities of his doctrine upon ridi- 
cule. Let them stay where they belong, and if he is 
ashamed of the offspring, let him abandon the parent. 
The truth is, there is no middle way between Intelli- 
gence and Chance. Our friends may talk as learnedly 
as they please, about " the laws of nature," the " eternity 
of matter," and the " laws," and " tendencies," and " af- 
finities," and " analogies " of matter ; it is, after all, a 
mere heaping together of words. If God did not make 
man, chance did — if God did not make the world, 
chance made it. If they deny that there is a Supreme 
Intelligence, they must come down to naked chance ; 
for, we say again, there is no middle way ; the moment 
we leave the one, we step into the boundaries of the 
other. And we insisc, that if they deny the existence 
of God, they shall be driven from the coverts of" nature," 
" analogies," " inherent properties," &c. and be made 
to stand on the open ground of chance, and abide its ab- 
surdities. And we press it upon them — if there is no 
God — the world, man, every thing, is reduced to chance, 
hare, unvarnished chance, and here they must meet it. 

7. In the next section we shall proceed to give some 
of the direct evidences for the existence of a Supreme^ 
Intelligence. In doing this, we shall be as brief as the 
nature of the subject will admit. 



CHAPTER II. 

DIRECT EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

SECTION I. 

EVIDENCE FROM THE HUMAN BODY. 

I. Illustration. 

1. We hare before us a book. And what is a book ? 
It is a combination of various articles having certain re- 
markable relations to each other. What are these arti- 
cles — what is the character of their several relations — 
and do these relations give us reason to suppose they 
are the result of design ? Let us examine, and, if pos- 
sible, ascertain. We find, in the first place, that what 
are called its covers are composed of pieces of thin wood 
of a definite shape, the surfaces, sides, and ends being 
perfectly smooth,— these are enclosed in linen which 
conforms in shape to their own, and are thus connected 
together, leaving a space between. This space, we dis- 
cover, is filled up with some hundred, or more, of leaves, 
or pieces of white paper, every one of which is found 
to resemble, in form, the covers, or the wood and linen 
just mentioned. In opening these for farther examina- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 45 



tion, we find two or three to be blank, but on coming to 
the next we meet with certain little things called letters 
impressed thereon. On looking at them more closely 
we find that they are arranged in a certain specific or- 
der, and when taken together have a certain definite 
signification which has reference to something that is to 
follow. In turning the leaves, we see them all covered 
with other letters of a smaller, and in some respects, of 
a different shape, but still so arranged as always to em- 
body some meaning which is comprehended by the 
mind as soon as they meet the eye. Continuing to 
pursue our investigation, we find that at various dis- 
tances there are interruptions to the regular succession 
of these letters, followed by a brief space which is left 
blank. When it commences again, there is constantly 
placed at the beginning some few letters of the same 
size and shape with a portion of those upon the first 
leaf, and they have invariably relation to the smaller 
ones that come after. Thus it proceeds to the end. 
Now, if we turn back again to the first page, we shall 
discover, -in the upper right hand corner, the figure 1, and 
on the next page, the figure 2, and on the next, the fig- 
ure 3 ; and by casting the eye from page to page, it will 
be discovered that the figures follow each other in their 
exact relative order to the close of the book. If we take 
one step farther in the investigation, we shall ascertain 
that all these leaves, thus filled with letters, and regular- 
ly numbered, are bound together by means of threads 
passing through them from one side to the other ; and 
that thus connected, the whole is fastened to the covers 
before named. Lastly, if we close the volume, and 



46 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

bring the back to view, it will be seen that certain let- 
ters are impressed there, of the same form with those 
upon the first page, arranged in the same manner, and 
signifying the same thing. 

2. Such are the materials of which the book before 
us is composed, and such their relations to each other. 
With the information afforded by this examination we 
are prepared to decide whether this book is the result of 
design. It is presumed that no man in the full posses- 
sion of his reason would deny that there are marks of 
design here, of thought, of intelligence. So plainly does 
this appear in every part, so legibly is it written upon 
every one of the materials, and in the perfect adaptation 
of these to specific purposes, it would be regarded as an 
evidence of insanity to say that the book was not pro- 
duced by contrivance — that it had no maker. One might 
as well say that day was not the effect of the sun's light j 
he might as well deny his own existence; he would as 
soon be believed, and such assertions would not be con- 
sidered greater absurdities. Contrivance is seen as 
readily as the book itself, and to look upon one is to 
look upon the other. No part can be named where 
there is not some marks of mind. The wood and lin- 
en of the covers show it in their form and union ; the 
paper proves it by its composition and shape ; the let- 
ters prove it in the same way, and by their exact and 
intelligent arrangement; the figures afford the same 
witness from the same source ; the threads which bind 
the whole together, the gum, the paste, in their respec- 
tive places; every thing about it manifests design separ- 
ately ; and as a whole it establishes it beyond the reach 
of doubt 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 47 



3. This point being demonstrated, the conclusion is 
very plain and certain. Design necessarily supposes a 
designer; contrivance must have had a contriver ; and 
hence, the book being the result of design, or being 
itself a contrivance, must have had a contriver, must 
have had an intelligent, thinking, reasoning maker. 
With regard to this, there will be no dispute ; it is the 
legitimate consequence of the first position, and must 
and will be universally admitted. Let us proceed then 
to make an application of the argument to the subject in 
discussion. 

II. The Human Body. 

1. I am a living being. But this does not satisfy 
me ; I wish to know more about myself. How am I 
constituted ? Or, rather, what are the parts and portions 
of my composition ? what are the relations which exist 
between them ? and do these relations manifest design, 
or give evidence of being the result of contrivance 1 
Let me examine myself, and endeavor to ascertain. I 
find in the first place that I have what is termed a head, 
composed of, within, a mass of nervous matter of the 
most delicate and curious structure, performing certain 
very important functions ; and, without, a number of 
bones so shaped and joined one with another as to form 
nearly a sphere, being a complete protection to the mass 
within. This is covered with a portion of flesh of a like 
shape, exactly fitting every part of the sphere ; and this 
again is surmounted with a thick covering of hair. In 
connection with the head I find two ears, or organs for 
the reception of sound, one on each side, directly oppo- 
site; and so nicely constituted that they harmonize in 



48 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

their operations as to time and force, so that any noise 
or sound is heard at the same moment and with equal 
power by both ; and such is the exact and perfect con- 
nection, one with the other, that, though having two or- 
gans, I. hear the sound as if I had but one. Next to 
these come two eyes, the structure of which is so deli- 
cate, so minute, and complex, that one cannot examine 
it without being wrapped in admiration and astonish- 
ment. I cannot stay, however, to develope these won- 
ders ; but must pass with simply saying that these two 
organs likewise produce but a single effect. They are 
placed at that precise geometrical distance which blends 
the vision of both eyes into one, so that, although the 
object is painted on the retina of each, it is still seen but 
as one, and conveys but one impression to the mind. I 
find next that I have a nose which gives cognisance of 
objects in relation to other qualities, and performs cer- 
tain important duties. Next comes a mouth, fitted with 
a most singular apparatus, by which I am enabled to 
break into smaller pieces such food as is too large to pass 
down the throat ; which, by the way, is another most 
singular and complicated connection of different parts, 
one with another. On farther examination, I find that 
the head, as a whole, is joined to the body by a curious 
combination of bones which may be called a hinge, so 
fitted that the head can move freely backward and for- 
ward as far as may be convenient or necessary. In ad- 
dition to this, there is found what has been very prop- 
erly called a tenon and mortice; that is to say, there is 
a projection proceeding from the second bone in the 
neck which enters a corresponding hole in the bone 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



49 



above it, and by aid of this the head is enabled to turn 
from right to left as far round as may be desirable. 
Next, I meet with what is termed the vertebrae, the 
spine, or commonly, the back-bone. Here is wonder 
upon wonder to such an extent that it would be vain to 
attempt a description of them. Suffice it to say, that I 
find this spine answering all my wants; — at one time 
firm, when I would be erect ; and when I would bend 
or stoop, as flexible as a reed, — and at the same 
time preserving in these different situations a perfect 
communication by means of a canal passing through 
the twenty^four pieces of which it is composed. This 
canal also I find to be of the utmost importance, supply- 
ing the body with matter indispensable to its existence ; 
which is done by pipes going out from it at various 
points in its progress, which are divided and subdivided, 
again and again, until they traverse every portion of 
the frame. In continuing my examination, I find that 
I have arms, one on each side of my body, so furnished 
with hinges, and joints, and muscles, that I am able 
with the aid of the hands, another wonder, to perform 
any service with them I may need, or my situation may 
require. I come next to the lungs, the heart, the chest ; 
but to describe the beauty, the power, the admirable ar- 
rangement, and mutual connection and operation of 
these several parts, would require volumes, and call for 
a knowledge and an eloquence which are not mine. 
They must therefore be passed over. The same must 
be said of the stomach, and of the whole apparatus for 
digestion, for secretion, and for circulation, with all of 
which I find I am provided in the most perfect manner. 
Lastly, I discover that the entire body is placed upon 



50 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

what are called the legs, so formed by the union of dif- 
ferent bones that they perform most useful and important 
functions ; while to the end of these are added feet, so 
shaped, so admirably fitted to their respective places, 
that they support, without difficulty or pain, the whole 
superstructure which has been examined, and give to it 
the power of locomotion, transporting it from place to 
place, at the pleasure of the will. 

2. Reader, if you have been with me through the ex- 
amination just closed, we are prepared to answer the 
question proposed at its commencement. " Do the re- 
lations of the several parts of the human frame evince 
any thing like design, or do they give us reason to sup- 
pose that they are the result of contrivance ? " It would 
seem almost an impossibility that a rational being, after 
having carefully looked through the human system, 
could calmly settle down into the conclusion that it af- 
forded no marks of design, gave no proof whatever of 
intelligence. Yet, strange as it may appear, there have 
been, there are such anomalies in the thinking world, 
and that even among us. These do affirm that they are 
utterly unable to discover aught in man that would lead 
them to believe that he was the production of a Superior 
Mind. Now, it was admitted that the book gave evident 
token of mind — that its various parts, taken separately 
and together, established beyond question that it had an 
intelligent maker. This fact, the unbelievers to whom 
we allude, will themselves allow, and indeed no person 
would so far risk his reputation for sound judgment and 
sanity as to deny this. To us this is a mystery : we 
cannot divine how one, having a book and a man before 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 51 

him, can, after patiently examining the structure of 
both, affirm that the one plainly shows design, while the 
other shows none ; that the one evidently had a maker, 
while the other as evidently had not. We can form no 
conception of the process of thought by which he can 
arrive at a conclusion so directly and positively opposed 
to the most palpable facts, and so obviously inconsistent 
with itself. It may be in accordance with the rules of 
logic and the principles of philosophy — it may be per- 
fectly intelligible in the light of nature ; but we are not 
able to see it thus. Of one thing, nevertheless, we are 
certain, that, however logical or philosophical this con- 
clusion may be, or however much in harmony with the 
light of nature, it is most assuredly at war, length and 
breadth, with plain common sense. 

3. The book is a mere cipher, so far as contrivance 
is concerned, when placed by the side of a man; and its 
composition, with the connection of its several parts, is 
nothing compared with the structure of the human 
body. For every evidence of design in the former, 
there are found in the latter an hundred more direct and 
unequivocal ; and every proof that the former affords of 
having had a maker, is met by a score from the latter 
of a far more palpable and convincing character. What 
shall we do, then, under these circumstances 1 What is 
the most consistent conclusion at which we can arrive ? 
Shall we agree with the objector, that the book is a con- 
trivance, and must have had a maker, and with him af- 
firm that the more complicate and beautiful volume of 
the human system, is not a contrivance, and could not 
have had a maker ? Let us pause a moment, and in- 



52 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



quire if this be the result of our examination ; inquire if 
the heart, if the head, approve the decision. Yea, as 
much hath been said of the powers and infallibility of 
Reason, let us even ask if she will guide us to this end. 
Truly, if it hath come to this, we may well say with 
Young,— 

" This is not reason's dictate ; Reason says. 
Close with the side where one grain turns the scale : 
What vast preponderance is here ! Can Reason 
With louder voice exclaim—' Believe a God V w 



SECTION II. 



EVIDENCE OF DESIGN IN INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE BODY. 

1. Thus far we have looked at the human body as a 
whole, or, as a collection of parts for specific purposes. 
Let us now examine some of these parts separately, and 
it will be found, that each one, of itself, furnishes a dis- 
tinct and entire argument in proof of an Intelligence 
adapting means to ends with a wonderful skill and pre- 
cision. In this department we shall freely borrow from 
those w T ho have written, more especially Avith reference 
to this subject, and shall avail ourselves of whatever may 
be to our purpose. 

2. The first example of mechanical contrivance to 
which attention wall be called, is that of the arm. The 
motions which this member was required to perform 
are various, and its adaptations are exactly fitted to 
these motions throughout. Beginning at the shoulder, 
we find there was needed a motion in every direction, 
and this is provided for by what has been called the 
ball and socket joint, which is formed by a convex or 
globular extremity playing into a kind of cup. The 
little girl's " cup and ball" is an illustration of it ; the 
ball being elongated to represent the bone of the arm. 



54 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



Such a joint admits of motion, in any direction, which 
was exactly what was necessary here, as all the other 
movements of the arm depend upon it. A hinge joint, 
like that which enables the head to move up and down, 
would not have answered the purpose, as this would only 
have swung the arm backward and forward, without 
the rotatory movement which is essential to its utility. 

3. But if the arm had been only one bone from the 
shoulder to the hand, it would have been extremely 
awkward, and we could never have conveyed food to 
our mouths. As this was an important duty to be dis- 
charged by the hand, it was provided for by dividing the 
arm at the elbow into two parts, and fitting in there a 
hinge joint. By the aid of this, the arm is bent at pleas- 
ure, and a communication is opened between the mouth 
and hand. Is there no design here ? Is there no adap- 
tation of means to ends ? But this is not all. Had that 
part of the arm between the elbow and the wrist been of 
one piece, the hand would have remained always in one 
relative position ; it could not have turned round upon 
itself as it does now. As this would have been exceeding- 
ly inconvenient, the difficulty is obviated by employing 
two bones lying along side each other, the one of which 
is connected with the upper part of the arm by the 
hinge joint already mentioned, giving the motion up 
and down, and the other, to which the hand is attached, 
plays upon this by a ball and socket joint at each end, 

urnishing the rotatory motion, by which the palm of 
the hand is turned as we will. And all these move- 
ments may be carried on at the same time ! We ask if 

any thing can be more plainly mechanical than this 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 55 



construction of the arm ? We ask if more palpable 
proof of design, and provision for foreseen wants, can be 
given ? 

4. " The joints, or rather the ends of the bones which 
form them, display also in their configuration, another 
use. The nerves, blood-vessels and tendons, which are 
necessary to the life, or for the motion of the limbs, 
must, it is evident, in their w r ay from the trunk of the 
body to the place of their destination, travel over move- 
able joints ; and it is no less evident, that, in this part 01 
their course, they will have, from, sudden motions and 
abrupt changes of curvature, to encounter the danger of 
compression, attrition, or laceration. To guard fibres 
so tender against consequences so injurious, their path 
is in those parts protected with peculiar care ; and that 
by a provision, in the figure of the bones themselves. 
The nerves which supply the fore-arm, especially the 
inferior cubital nerves, are at the elbow conducted, by 
a kind of covered way, under the inner extuberances of 
the bone which composes the upper part of the arm. 
At the knee, the extremity of the thigh-bone is divided 
by a sinus or cliff into two heads or protuberances; 
and these heads on the back part stand out beyond the 
cylinder of the bone. Through the hollow, which lies 
between the hind parts of these two heads, that is to say, 
under the ham, between the ham-strings, and within the 
concave recess of the bone formed by the extuberances 
on each side ; in a word, along a defile, betw r een rocks, 
pass the great vessels and nerves which go to the leg. 
In the joint at the shoulder, in the edge of the cup which 
receives the head of the bone, is a notch, which is join- 



56 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



ed or covered at the top with a ligament. Through this 
hole, thus guarded, the blood-vessels steal to their des- 
tination in the arm, instead of mounting over the edge 
of the concavity. Who led these vessels by a road so 
defended and secured ?" * 

5. The care manifest in the preservation of the joints 
is also worthy of remark. They are to be in use forty, 
sixty, and even an hundred years, and one would think 
that they would wear out, before that time, from mere 
friction. But there is provision made against this ; the 
same Intelligence that made the joints, made them to 
wear. To accomplish this, the ends of the bones are 
covered with a cartilage or gristle, soft and smooth as 
polished ivory, which effectually prevents the attrition of 
the bones, or their rubbing one against the other. But 
there is something more than this. To make the joint 
run easy, there are vessels secreting a kind of oily mu- 
cilage, and which are so situated, as to drop this oil 
upon the joints in just the quantity that is wanted. If 
the reader has ever travelled upon a rail-road, he will 
probably recollect, that at the stopping places, as they 
are called, a person goes from car to car, with a vessel 
of oil, which he pours upon the axle on which the wheels 
revolve, for the purpose of making them run easy, and 
of preventing friction. How much superior is the pro- 
vision for the joints ! Here the vessel prepares its 



* Paley's Nat. Theol. c. viii. We have recently learned from one who has 
made this subject the study of many years, that in the forefoot of the Lion, 
where any injury to the artery might be followed with fatal consequences, that 
artery is buried in the very bane itself! Is there any design here? Does 
this arrangement look like intentional protection? 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 57 

own oil, fills itself, and of itself lubricates the axle as it 
is needed, without stopping" the wheel. Can anything 
be more beautiful 1 Can any thing more plainly evince 
design ? Once more. To finish the mechanism, these 
joints, for the purpose of preventing dislocation, are 
strongly fastened together by means of ligaments of an 
elastic substance, which, while it gives strength, at the 
same time admits of free motion to the limb. We know 
not how any one can look upon this studied arrange- 
ment, without the conviction that it is the w r ork of In- 
telligence. It seems to us impossible to resist this con- 
viction. 

6. In the next place, we will briefly notice the dispo- 
sition of the muscles. Every muscle that moves a bone 
has its antagonist, w T hich acts in an opposite or different 
direction. A single muscle only to every bone, w r ould 
be of no use, as it would leave the body wholly incapa- 
ble of action. There is, therefore, so to speak, a re- 
storing muscle always provided for one which acts pos- 
itively. There is a muscle to open the eye, and anoth- 
er acting in an opposite direction to shut it. There is a 
muscle to turn the head, and an antagonist muscle to 
bring it back again to its natural position; and so on 
through the whole catalogue. It is easy to see that 
without this antagonistic action, our limbs would be use- 
less ; for, having once turned the head, it would forever 
remain so; or having once opened the eye or mouth, 
it would never be closed again. But by this wise pro- 
vision of opposing muscles, the whole machinery works 
to perfect satisfaction. 

7. Another fact in relation to the muscles may be 

5 



58 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



profitably noticed. The number is very large ; those 
by which voluntary motion is performed, are no less 
than four hundred and thirty-six, and it is truly wonder- 
ful that they are so admirably arranged, as not in the 
least to interfere with each other. They pass in every 
direction, over and under, and even through each other, 
thus changing the direction of their power, after the 
manner of a loop or pulley. And yet, w r ith all this, there 
is no entangling, no interruption. Sometimes they act 
by means of tendons, where a large muscle w T ould be 
inconvenient. The muscles which move the toes are 
an example of this. They are placed for the sake of 
symmetry in the leg, and tendons attached to them run 
down the leg in a sheath, until they reach the instep, 
where they are carefully strapped down with ligaments, 
and under these proceed to the toes to which they are 
fastened. Is it possible for the most skilful contrivance 
to have planned this better? The same is true of the 
muscles which move the fingers. Instead of being 
placed in the back of the hand, which would have been 
very inconvenient and clumsy, they are carried up along 
the arm, and act by means of tendons running from 
them to the ringers, and carefully strapped or tied down 
at the wrist.* 



* The composition of the muscle is perfectly mechanical. "It consists of 
fibres which lie parallel to each other. A single muscle consists of some mil- 
lions of these fibres combined together, having the same point of attachment or 
origin, and concentrating in a tendon, which is fixed to a moveable part, called 
it3 insertion." Bell on the Hand, p. 89. Bridg. Treat, iv. Is not this precisely 
the way men make a rope, by the union of small threads, and the twisting 
them together i Did a well-finished rope ever happen I 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 59 



8. In these examples, there is the most palpable evi- 
dence of mechanical contrivance. The windlass of a 
well is, perhaps, a good illustration of the last men- 
tioned. In this case, we see the moving power, which 
is the windlass, placed at a distance from the body to be 
moved, which is the bucket at the bottom of the well ; 
but the object is gained by a rope passing from the 
windlass to the bucket. This is exactly the plan adopt- 
ed in the example in question. For convenience the 
moving body, which is the muscle, is placed at a dis- 
tance from the body to be moved, which is the ringer 
or ringers ; but the movement is effected by minute 
ropes or tendons, passing from the muscles to the fin- 
gers. So of the loop or pulley muscle. When heavy 
bodies are to be raised to the upper floor of a high 
building, instead of standing on the floor to which they 
are to be raised, and pulling them up ; a projecting tim- 
ber is fixed in the side of the building, at the end of 
which is fastened a block with a wheel in it; and, 
the men, passing a rope, one end of which is attached 
to the weight, through this pulley or block, the direction 
of the power is changed, and. then, standing upon the 
ground, they pull down, and thus the weight is raised 
up. This is precisely the contrivance by which some 
of the muscles are regulated. No one pretends but that 
the first is design ; and why is not the second, by the 
same rule? 

9. The next example to which our attention will be 
called is that of the hand. " In the first place, it posses- 
ses in an eminent degree, a leading quality of an organ 
of grasp; since it readily applies itself to, and securely 



60 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



holds, bodies of every form and size that are capable of 
being moved by human strength. And because many 
bodies are of too great a size to be held by one hand alone, 
there is provided to each a fellow assistant, so that the two 
are fully equivalent to a hand of the very largest dimen- 
sions. Take then any one of those un wieldly bodies which 
a man can only lay hold of by means of both his hands, 
as a mill-stone or a rafter, or take one of the smallest 
objects, as a millet-seed or a hair, or a minute thorn ; or, 
lastly, reflect on that vast multitude of objects of every 
possible size, intermediate to the greatest and the least 
of those above mentioned; and you will find the hands 
so exactly capable of grasping each particular one, as 
if they had been expressly made for grasping that alone, 
Thus, the smallest things of all, we take up with the 
tips of the fingers, those which are a little larger, we take 
up with the same fingers, but not with the tips of them ; 
substances still larger we take up with three fingers, and 
so on with four, or with all the five fingers, or even with 
the whole hand ; all which we could not do, were not 
the hand divided, and divided precisely as it is. For 
suppose the thumb were not placed as it is, in opposi- 
tion to the four fingers, but that all the five were ranged 
in the same line ; is it not evident that in this case their 
number would be useless ? For. in order to have a firm 
hold of any thing, it is necessary either to grasp it all 
around, or at least to grasp it in two opposite points; 
neither of which would have been possible, if all the five 
fingers had been placed in the same plane ; but the end 
is now fully attainable, simply in consequence of the 
position of the thumb, which is so placed, and has ex- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 61 

actly such a degree of motion, as, by a slight inclina- 
tion, to be easily made to co-operate with any of the 
four fingers. And no one can doubt that there has 
been given to the hands, purposely, a form adapted to 
that mode of action, which they are observed to have; 
while in the feet where extent of surface is wanted for 
support, all the toes are arranged in the same plane." # 
It would seem almost impossible that one could consid- 
er this beautiful piece of mechanism, and not feel that it 
is the work of Intelligence. So plainly is skill and de- 
sign written upon it, that it must, it appears to us, cost 
an exertion of the mind to contemplate it without con- 
viction. 

10. We shall here give a brief view of the heart in 
which we shall discover a double set of machinery, ev- 
ery part of which evinces the most surpassing wisdom, 
and will give us a high idea of the skill with which 
the various parts are made to play into each other. We 
do not know but that there may be some who can ex- 
amine this important portion of the human system, and 
yet affirm that they see no design in its wonderful ma- 
chinery ; but if there are such in this world of ours, 
then we have only to say, that it is not because no de- 
sign is there, but because they cannot see it. The heart 
is situated between the lobes of the lungs, and is divided 
by strong thick partitions into two parts, each of which 
contains two cavities, the auricle and the ventricle. It 
is kept in continual action by alternate contraction and 
dilatation, which is the pulse, or, as it is commonly term- 



# (Men, quoted by Kid4 on the Physical Condition of Man. Bridg. Treat, iu 



62 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

ed, the beating of the heart. From the left ventricle the 
blood is propelled by contraction, acting as a forcing 
pump, into the aorta, or main artery, which in its course 
divides into various branches, which are again subdi- 
vided into others, till the ramifications in their minute- 
ness extend to every extremity of the body, and penetrate 
all the capillary vessels ; thence it enters the veins of 
the returning system, which collect these into larger 
branches, and, by uniting these, into still larger, as riv- 
ers are made by the junction of smaller streams, till they 
all at last flow into the great trunk, which conducts the 
blood into the right auricle, and this into the right ven- 
tricle, on the opposite side of the heart from which it 
went out. This right ventricle propels the blood, thus 
received, through another set of arteries into the lungs, 
where, by dispersion through innumerable minute ves- 
sels, it is exposed to the action of the air, which fits it 
again for circulation ; and then it is carried back by a 
corresponding set of veins to the left auricle of the heart, 
which immediately empties it into the left ventricle ; the 
point from which it started. Here, we may say, are 
two objects to be accomplished. 1. The circulation of 
the system. 2. The preparing it for circulation by 
bringing it in contact with the air. Two systems were 
necessary, and two were therefore provided. We have 
a ventricle to send the blood out into the body, and, 
when this blood has performed its appointed functions-, 
we have an auricle for receiving it back again into the 
heart. This done, we have another ventricle for throw- 
ing it into the lungs, and then, when it has been pre- 
pared anew, we have another auricle for conducting^ it 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 63 

once more to the fountain. Thus we have two receiv- 
ing, vessels, and two forcing pumps with all the hose 
attached for carrying the blood to the distance required. 
Is there no contrivance here 1 no mechanical skill ? 
Was there ever a fire-engine without a maker ? No. 
How much less a heart, then ? 

11. It might justly be expected that the blood would, 
in a great measure, lose the impulse which it received 
from the contraction of the heart, before it reached its 
destination, and, therefore, that something must be done 
to prevent its reflowing by the same channels. This 
something is done. The difficulty is provided against 
by furnishing the veins with valves, curiously construct- 
ed, and opening in the direction the blood should flow ; 
so that, as long as it keeps on its natural course, no ob- 
stacle is presented ; but the moment it begins to reflow, 
these valves are closed by the very action, and effectu- 
ally prevent its return. And what is this but design? 
Surely, a more unequivocal proof of Intelligence cannot 
be conceived. 

12. One example more, and we have done. " There 
are brought together within the cavity of the mouth" 
says Paley, " more distinct uses, and parts executing 
more distinct offices, than I think can be found lying so 
inear to one another, or within the same compass, in 
any other portion of the body, viz. teeth of different 
shapes, first for cutting, secondly for grinding; muscles, 
most artificially disposed for carrying on the compound 
motion of the lower jaw, half lateral and half vertical, 
by which the mill is worked: fountains of saliva, 
springing up in different parts of the cavity, for the 



64 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



moistening of the food, whilst the mastication is going 
on : glands to feed the fountains ; a muscular construc- 
tion of a very peculiar kind in the back part of the cav- 
ity, for the guiding of the prepared aliment into its pas- 
sage towards the stomach, and in many cases for carry- 
ing it along that passage. In the mean time, and with- 
in the same cavity, is going on another business, alto- 
gether different from what is here described, — that of 
respiration and speech. In addition, therefore, to all 
that has been mentioned, we have a passage opened, 
from this cavity to the lungs for the admission of air* 
exclusively of every other substance ; we have muscles, 
some in the larynx, and without number in the tongue, 
for the purpose of modulating that air in its passage, 
with a variety, a compass, and precision, of which no 
other musical instrument is capable. And, lastly, which 
in our opinion crowns the whole as a piece of machine- 
ry, we have a specific contrivance for dividing the pneu- 
matic part from the mechanical, and for preventing one 
set of actions interfering with the other. In no appara- 
tus put together by art, and for the purposes of art, do I 
know suqh multifarious uses so aptly combined, as in 
the natural organization of the human mouth, or where 
the structure, compared with the uses, is so simple. 
The mouth with all these intentions to serve, is a single 
cavity— is one machine — with its parts neither crowded 
nor confused, and each unembarassed by the rest ; each 
at least at liberty in a degree sufficient for the end to be 
obtained." * Such is the machinery of the human 



* Natural Theology, c. ix» 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 65 

mouth — and who can look upon it without confessing 
that it is the work of a skilful Artist ! 

13. We have now given several of the examples af- 
forded by the human body, in proof that there has been 
Intelligence at work in its formation. There are many 
more equally decisive, and perhaps more so, but which 
would require more lengthy expositions — as the spine, 
the ear, the eye, all of which give conclusive evidence 
of design. But it is believed that any candid mind, 
after having carefully considered the instances already 
adduced, will admit, what it would seem impossible to 
deny, that they are the result of intention, the work of 
contrivance, and, therefore, that they had a Contriver. 
This is established by each one of the examples men- 
tioned; it is not the consequence only of the whole 
train. If there were but one arm, or one hand, or one 
mouth in the world, it would still be certain that it was 
the production of thought, of design. Yea, if the whole 
mass should be struck from existence, and only a single 
eye left ; yet would the proof be indubitable, that this 
eye must have had a maker. Strangely, then, must 
that mind be constituted, which will not bow to the 
force of this accumulated evidence ; and perverted must 
be the heart which refuses to respond to this united 
testimony, that there is a God. 

14. In the next section we shall notice very briefly 
one or two examples of design from the external world, 
and with these close the direct proofs of a Supreme In- 
telligence. 



SECTION III. 



EVIDENCE FROM EXTERNAL NATURE. 

L In looking abroad upon the natural world with a 
careful eye, we cannot fail to discover certain arrange- 
ments and adaptations which give evidence of design. 
As one example, we might instance the well known 
fact, that all those animals which supply man with food, 
are found in greater abundance than those that are of 
a dangerous character. This certainly appears like a 
judicious arrangement ; for. aside from this, no reason 
can be given why it should be so. If there be no 
adaptation here to the wants of the human race, why 
should cattle, sheep, and swine, be more numerous than 
lions, tigers, and leopards? Why should turkeys, 
geese, and ducks, be found congregated in such vast 
flocks, and this in every clime, while the condor is con- 
fined to a single region, and the eagle wings his soli- 
tary flight through space with no companion near ? 
Why should cod-fish, and mackerel, and herring, be 
scattered in countless multitudes all along the shores of 
the great deep, while sword-fish, sharks, &c, compared 
with these, are strangers in the sea ? Does not this 
abundance of the useful on the one hand, and the 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 67 



scarcity of the hurtful on the other, clearly point out 
an intelligent and benevolent arrangement ? 

2. If we go to the deserts of Africa, we shall meet 
with an individual adaptation in the animal kingdom 
which is worthy of all attention. We refer to the cam- 
el, or as, it has been poetically called, "the ship of the 
desert." Can any thing be offered to show why this 
animal should be found in these barren wastes, and 
only here % Can any satisfactory explanation be given 
of its perfect fitness for the performance of long and 
painful journeys over these sandy regions, unless we 
refer the whole to a Wisdom always regulating things 
according to the circumstances of the human family ? * 
Here are oceans of burning desert — without assistance 
man could not traverse them — he is therefore provided 
with a ship, in the shape of the camel, most happily 
adapted in every way to his wants. With this he 
plunges fearlessly into the sandy deep, and, though sur- 
rounded with danger and peril, makes his way safely to 
the place of his destination. If there be not design 
here, we know not what to call this arrangement. 



* " JVaiwre," says Mr Volney, " has given it a small head without ears, at 
the end of a long neck without flesh. She has taken from its legs and thighs 
every muscle not immediately requisite for motion ; and, in short, has bestowed 
on its withered body only the vessels and tendons necessary to connect its 
frame together. She has furnished it with a strong jaw, that it may grind the 
hardest aliments; and lest it should consume too much, she has straitened its 
stomach, and obliged it to chew the cud." And is there no design here ? Mr. 
Volney may call this admirable adaptation ©f the camel to its situation and to 
the wants of the Arab, nature, or by any other name he pleases; the name 
will not alter the thing; it is still intelligence, as his own words most clearly 
show, and this Intelligence is our God. We do verily think if ever a man 
bore witness against himself, Mr Volney has done it here. 



68 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



3. From the scorched deserts of the equator, we will 
turn to the frozen regions of the north, and we shall 
find there another beautiful adaptation among animals 
to the necessities of man. What can evince this more 
strikingly than the manner in which the rein-deer is 
made to answer the wants, wishes, and pleasures of the 
Laplander ? A clearer case of proof in this department 
cannot be imagined. It seems as if this animal were 
made expressly to serve the inhabitants of the inhospi- 
table clime where he is found. He requires but little 
food, subsisting upon shrubs, leaves, and moss, and yet, 
with this poor fare, will carry his master over the ice- 
bound plains at the rate of sixty and even an hundred 
miles in a day. From the milk the Laplander fur- 
nishes himself with cheese ; the flesh is the main arti- 
cle of food, as is the skin of clothing ; the tendons are 
made into bow-strings, and when split they supply the 
place of thread for sewing the skins ; from the horns is 
obtained a glue; and the bones are converted into 
spoons. Is not the rein-deer precisely the animal the 
Laplander needed ? Could a better one have been giv- 
en him ? And is there no design, no adaptation in the 
perfect manner in which all these various and multi- 
plied wants are met 1 If there be no evidence of this, 
then are we wholly ignorant of what constitutes evi- 
dence. 

4. The planetary system affords another unquestion- 
able proof of design, and clearly exhibits the arrange- 
ment of Intelligence. The sun placed in the centre, 
and the regular revolution of the planets around it, and 
on their axes at the same time, is nothing less than the 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 69 



result of a wise economy. If not, how happened it 
that the sun should have been fixed in the centre ? or 
if this were the necessary consequence of the laws of 
matter, why should it also have been a luminous body, 
giving out light and heat to the rest of the system? 
Why should not the earth, or Jupiter, or Hersche], 
have been the repositories of light and heat 1 Plainly 
because this would not have answered the purpose ; 
yet, if there be no design here, not the shadow of a rea- 
son can be offered why the sun should differ in these 
respects from the other bodies.* We wish that the 
sceptic would candidly ask himself if this is probably 
mere accident ; and if so, whether he does not think it a 
most fortunate one? And what explanation can be 
given of the revolution of the planets upon their axes, 
except it be intention ? Why should the earth, we ask, 
while going round the sun, whirl round upon itself ev- 
ery twenty-four hours ? Would it have been any in- 
convenience to man if it had not ? W ould it have 
made any difference in his condition if there had been 
no alternation of day and night ? We know not how 
one can resist the evidence of Intelligence in this happy 
and benevolent disposition of things. 

5. If we take a glance at the structure of the solar 



* The immortal Newton saw design here — " How matter," says he," should 
divide itself into two sorts ; and that part of it which is fit to compose a shining 
body should fall down into one mass, and make a sun ; and the rest, which is 
fit to compose an opaque body, should coalesce, not into one great body, like 
the shining matter, but into many little ones, — I do not think explicable by 
mere natural causes, but am forced to ascribe it to the counsel and contrivance 
of a voluntary Agent.'' First letter to Bentley, cited by Whewell. 



70 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

system, as a whole, we cannot fail to be struck with its 
wonderful harmony. The motions of the planets all in 
one direction, and, with little variation, in the same 
plane ; the motions of the secondaries in the same di- 
rection with the primaries ; their revolutions upon their 
axes in the same direction also — what can he clearer 
evidence of intention ? If chance gave the planets their 
motion, why should they not have moved in every di- 
rection, to the north, and south, and east, and west, and 
at all possible angles % Would chance have thrown 
them all in one direction, and in the same plane 1 and 
would it have done the same to the satellites % It seems 
to us that this fact of uniform direction in the planetary 
motion, is one of the strongest possible proofs of a 
Ruling Intelligence. Add to this, their forms, their 
orbits, the inclination of the axis, their distances, and 
the mutually controlling forces by which they are reg- 
ulated, and we cannot but see the propriety and truth 
of that beautiful saying of the ancients, — " God works 
by geometry" 

6. We cannot forbear giving an example in illustra- 
tion of this saying. We have already spoken of the 
law of gravitation, or the tendency of all bodies to the 
centre. It was observed that by the action of this law 
the earth was continually attracted toward the sun, and 
would fall into it, were it not for a counteracting influ- 
ence. Let us pause a moment, then, and consider the 
exactness of this influence. "When thrown into space^ 
the projectile force must have been at right angles with 
that of gravitation, or the sun's attraction; so that by 
the combined operation of these two forces it might be 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 71 

carried round in a circle, or nearly a circle. How 
steady, then, must have been the hand that gave the 
impulse, and how perfect the quantity of force applied, 
to have produced this result, to have exactly balanced 
the power of gravitation ! Had it been any thing dif- 
ferent from what it was, the present order of things 
could not have existed. If the force of projection had 
been less, the earth would have fallen into the sun ; if 
more, it would have whirled off into the interminable 
fields of space. Can anyone fail of perceiving how 
nice must have been the impulse given, and how math- 
ematically precise the calculation, so to speak, which 
determined it 1 Nothing can exceed the perfection, the 
beauty of this result. And lives there a rational being 
who will affirm that there is no adaptation, no Intelli- 
gence here ? Can the most determined unbeliever, af- 
ter contemplating this picture, turn away without ac- 
knowledging its excellencies 1 We should not think 
it ; for it seems to us that the human mind has not the 
power to resist such evidence, when fully understood. 

7. Many other examples might be adduced from ex- 
ternal nature, in proof that there has been, and is, Wis- 
dom at work in planning, directing, and adapting, every 
thing in the best possible manner. And certain are 
we, that he who refuses to admit this in the face of the 
evidence with which he is surrounded, and makes it all 
the work of chance, manifests, not the less, but a greater 
credulity than he who believes. For, assuredly, it is 
no easy matter to conceive of more palpable instances 
of a designing Mind, than those which have been con- 
sidered. And if they do not prove the presence of In- 



72 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



telligence, it is difficult to imagine what would ; and 
we would beg to ask the unbeliever, what kind of evi- 
dence he requires to satisfy him of this ? We should 
wish to know, if such proof as has been advanced be 
insufficient, what sort of proof, and how much, would 
be sufficient to convince him of the existence of a Su- 
preme Intelligence. Will he ask himself this question, 
and answer it so as to satisfy his own conscience? 
Again — if the examples which have been mentioned, 
are not the result of thought, of intention, how does he 
account for their perfect adaptation in all cases ? How 
does he explain the assemblage of mathematical propo- 
sitions involved in the construction of the planetary sys- 
tem? These are questions to which we have certainly 
a right to demand answers of him, and they are ques- 
tions which, if reasonably and rightly answered, must 
necessarily involve the existence of Deity. 

8. Here let us pause, and sum up the whole matter. 
We have, it is believed, candidly examined the argu- 
ments adduced to disprove the existence of the Supreme 
Being, and have found that they not only fail of their 
object, but in some cases furnish proof to the contrary — 
we have looked upon the human body as a whole ; 
have examined some of its parts separately, and have 
seen the striking manifestations of design and mechan- 
ical contrivance which it affords — we have considered 
the admirable adaptations of the natural world, to the 
condition and necessities of man — we have cast a brief 
glance upon the stupendous and perfect machinery of 
the planetary system. In all these several departments, 
we have been presented with examples, each one of 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 73 



which ought to be sufficient to satisfy any reasonable 
mind ; and when the whole are accumulated into one 
mountain of evidence, we see not, we know not, how 
even the most sceptical can withhold the exclamation — » 
There is a God.* 



* The reader, it is presumed, will not be displeased with the addition here 
of the sentiments of the great and beloved Washington. Inreplyto a gen- 
tleman who expressed doubts on the subject discussed above, he gave his 
opinion thus : — 

" It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe without the 
agency of a Supreme Being. 

It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme 
Being. 

" It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion 
is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist with- 
out the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason in attempting to ac- 
count for the phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to j 
and well has it been said, that if there had been no God, mankind would have 
been obliged to imagine one." Paulding's Life of Washington, vol. ii. pp, 
309, 210. 

6 



CHAPTER III. 

1. A REVELATION REASONABLE AND PROBABLE. 2, 
INSUFFICIENCY OF THE LIGHT OF NATURE AS A 
GUIDE. 

SECTION I. 

A REVELATION REASONABLE AND PROBABLE. 

1. The existence of God or a Supreme Intelligence, 
we shall now consider as established, and through the 
remainder of the discussion, the argument will proceed 
accordingly. The question which next presents itself, in 
the natural arrangement of the subject, is the following: 
Have we any just reasons for supposing that God would 
make a Revelation to mankind ? Perhaps it will be 
said, we ought first to prove that it is possible for God 
to make a revelation ; but our answer is, that this is al- 
ready proved in the existence of God, for it is the height 
of absurdity to believe that he could create the world, 
could create man, and yet could not communicate his 
will unto him if he saw fit. This is so palpable that 
it is somewhat singular, that Christian writers should 
make this particular a subject for examination, since it 
would seem to both parties, one would think, but a 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 75 



waste of words. If the existence of God be proved, 
the possibility of a revelation is necessarily proved with 
it; because with the very idea of God we associate, as 
part and portion of that idea, all possible perfection; 
and in this, is of course included, the power to reveal 
his will to his creatures, when, where, and in whatso- 
ever way he may choose. We shall therefore spend 
no time or labor on this point, but proceed to the consid- 
eration of the proposed question — Have we just reasons 
for supposing that God would make a revelation to man? 

2. If there are just reasons for believing* that God 
created man, there are equally just reasons for believing 
that he would communicate to him his will, or a suita- 
ble knowledge of his character and government, and all 
necessary information in regard to his duties and desti- 
nies. If this be not admitted, then we come to the 
strange conclusion, that he who has displayed such wise 
design and contrivance, such wonderful skill in the 
adaptation of means to ends in the natural world, has 
totally disregarded this principle in the most important 
of all his works, the intellectual and moral condition of 
man. This master-piece of his workmanship he has 
thrown into being, without giving him the least instruc- 
tion as to the course he should pursue, or the measures 
he should adopt for the promotion of his welfare, the 
cultivation of his powers, and the general elevation of 
his whole mind and character. He bestowed upon him 
the highest and noblest capabilities, yet imparted no in- 
formation for the proper direction of those capabilities ; 
he gave him all the materials for the accomplishment 
of a magnificent work, but not one word as to what the 



76 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



work was, or the manner in which the materials were 
to be put together. Thus it appears that he who mani- 
fested design in every thing beside, made man with no 
design ! A beautiful piece of machinery, most certain- 
ly, but useless — like a watch without hands, — it is in 
motion, the springs are in action, the wheels are turn- 
ing, but to no purpose; it does not point out the hour, 
and is therefore valueless. Now, can we suppose that 
an infinitely wise and good Being would create man 
with all the powers and faculties necessary for the at- 
tainment of a great and glorious object, and yet give 
him no knowledge as to the proper application of these 
in acquiring the desired object? Can we suppose that 
he would place within him all the mechanism for keep- 
ing time, but fail to add the index for marking it ? Such 
a view of the subject would surely tend to lessen our 
respect for the wisdom of Deity, for we could not but 
question the perfection thereof, when we find it leaving 
so noble a work half finished. 

3. An argument for the probability of some kind of 
a revelation, partaking of the character of instructions 
suited to the wants and ignorance of man, may be drawn 
from the fact, that this is practically the universal ad- 
mission of mankind. We know it may be said that 
this is very like assuming the point in debate, but we 
do not mean it so. All we design to say is, that the 
practices of all nations directly countenance the propo- 
sition in review : not that there are no individual excep- 
tions, for that is implied in this discussion ; but simply 
that, as communities, as nations, mankind have every 
where admitted the necessity and probability of revela- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 77 

tions or instructions from a higher power. The belief 
of this formed the basis of all their religious rites and 
ceremonies, and of much of their jurisprudence, and 
civil government.* Hence the oracles, omens, augu- 
ries, and divinations of ancient times, and the great im- 
portance attached to them. 

4. Conscious of their own ignorance, and feeling the 
need of supernatural illumination, they adopted these 
methods of communication with their deities, and sought 
thus to draw from them the desired information. No 
war, no expedition, no undertaking of any consequence, 
was attempted without consulting the oracles : these 
were the guides of all public, and in many cases of all 
private affairs ; so that nothing was done without their 
approbation and direction. In accordance with this, we 
hear Cicero asking — " What colony has Greece sent 
into Etolia, or Ionia, Asia, Sicily, or Italy, without a 
reference to the Pythian, the Dodonean, or Ammon or- 
acle 1 What war did she ever undertake without first 
consulting her gods ?" And again he says, " All the 
kings of Rome used augury, and when they were ex- 
pelled, nothing in public affairs, or in private households, 
or in war, was done without it."f This fully confirms 
the statement above made, 

* There is, aside from its political objects, a very valuable and interesting 
article on this subject, in the Westminster Review for January ,1836. Art. viii. 
Republication of the English Reviews, No. xxvii. There is also a passage in 
Cicero's De Divinatione, lib. i. c.40, in which he expressly declares that the 
republic was governed by the influence of augury—" rempublicam religion- 
urn auctoritate rexerunt." 

f Div. 1. i. cited by Turner, Sac. Hist. ii. pp. 23, 24. In the same work 
Cicero affirms — " I know of no nation, however civilized and learned, or fierce 
and barbarous, which does not think that future things may be signified and 
predicted to us." Ibid. 



78 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



5. It is a well-known fact also, that all the celebrated 
lawgivers of antiquity, as Zoroaster, Minos, Solon, Ly- 
curgus, Numa, &c. pretended that they had intercourse 
with the gods, and acted under their direction. Zoro- 
aster was enlightened in a mount of fire, through which 
his god revealed himself ; Solon appealed to an oracle ; 
Lycurgus did the same ; Numa had his Egeria, from 
whom he declared his laws were received ; while Za- 
leucus affirmed that his were given him of Minerva, 
the goddess of wisdom. All this was done in accord- 
ance with that feeling which was ever present with the 
people, that they were not competent to direct their own 
steps, and therefore needed the guidance of a superior 
Wisdom.* 

6. This particular is confirmed in a remarkable man- 
ner, by the celebrated heathen geographer Strabo, whose 
observation on the intercourse between mankind and the 
Deity, or, as he believed, deities, is worthy of attention. 
" Whatever," says he, " becomes of the real truth of 
these relations, this however is certain, that men did 
believe them, and think them true :and, for this reason, 
prophets were held in such honor, as to be thought 
worthy sometimes of royal dignity, as being persons 
who delivered precepts, and admonitions from the gods, 
both while they lived, and also after death. Such were 
Tiresias, Amphiaraus, &c. Such were Moses and his 



* Volney gives the following witness on this point : — " It is the unanimous 
testimony of history, and even of legends, that the first human beings were 
savages, and that it was to civilize them, and teach them to make bread,, thai 
the gods manifested themselves." Ruins, c. xxii. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 79 

successors." # Plutarch, after naming Zoroaster, Nu- 
ma, &c, asks, " Ts it not probable that the divinities 
conversed familiarly with these great men, to inspire 
them with the glorious enterprises which they execut- 
ed?"! And Xenophon informs us that Socrates be- 
lieved that the gods knew all things ; that they were 
present every where, and made suggestions to men 
concerning human affairs." J 

7. These are some of the facts, affording what we 
deem just grounds for believing that God would make 
a revelation to mankind. — L His wisdom requires it ; 
for, without this, the noblest work of his hand would 
be left in an imperfect state. This is inconsistent with 
wisdom, and therefore a revelation would be given to 
complete this work, or bring it to a state of perfection. 
2. A revelation is probable, from the universal admis- 
sion of mankind, that they needed the illumination and 
guidance of a more enlarged and perfect wisdom than 
their own, and from the fact that they have ever acted 
in agreement with this admission, by seeking the will 
and pleasure of Heaven through the medium of oracles, 
auguries, &c. 3. To these we may add, that the good- 
ness of God requires it; for, without it, man would 
have been left to grope his way through total darkness 9 
ignorant alike of the cause and object of his being, and 
exposed to continual error and danger. This is incon- 



* Strab. Geog. lib. xvi. cited by Home. 

f Plutarch, Numa. See also notes to Les Vies de Plutarque, traduites en 
Francais, par D. Ricard. Paris 1830. 
t Xen. Mem. lib. i. and Gneca Majora, i. 202. edit. 1808. 



80 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

sistent with goodness, and therefore God would commu- 
nicate such revelations or instructions, as were fitted to 
direct his children in the way of truth and happiness. 

8. We are aware that attempts have been made to 
do away the force of the arguments here stated in favor 
of a revelation, by affirming that the light of nature is 
sufficient to answer all the wants of man, and to teach 
him all his duties. It would be a proper answer to 
this assertion, to say, that it is contradicted by the uni- 
versal witness of mankind, as already given. The 
facts which have just been adduced, prove directly that 
men in all ages, and of all nations have denied the posi- 
tion, and have confessed the insufficiency of the light of 
nature, by seeking other assistance. If this is clear 
enough to answer all their wants, and inform them of 
all their duties, why is it that every people upon the 
face of the earth have had their omens, and divinations, 
and oracles ? These things are a palpable refutation 
of the theory in question, and show plainly that the 
voice of all nations and tribes is an unprejudiced ad- 
mission, that the light of nature is not a sufficient 
guide. We are willing, however, to meet this objection 
on its own ground, and shall therefore give attentiom 
to it in the next section. 



SECTION II. 



THE LIGHT OF NATURE NOT ADEQUATE TO THE WANTS OF MAN", 

1. It was observed, when speaking of the " laws of 
nature," that this was an expression to which most w r ho 
used it attached no distinct or definite meaning. The 
same remark is doubtless applicable to another familiar 
phrase, "the light of nature.' 5 Many pleasant things 
have been said, and many glowing pictures sketched 
by the pencil of poetic fancy, to convince the world of 
the superior excellency of nature's teachings, and of 
their perfect adaptation to all the moral and intellectual 
wants of man. But, alas for the imagination; as the 
gilded domes of London when exposed to the fog and 
smoke of her atmosphere soon lose their brilliancy, so 
these dazzling representations of the light of nature, 
when exposed to the damp and murky atmosphere of 
stubborn facts, quickly part with their theoretic beauty. 
It is not necessary that we enter into any labored argu- 
ments to show the fallacy of this doctrine in the ab- 
stract, to prove that the light of nature is not sufficient 
to teach man the way of duty, and instruct him in 
those things, the knowledge of which is requisite to his 
happiness, — it is not necessary to do this by speculative 



82 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

reasoning : we have only to appeal to the facts of the 
case, and we shall have an answer which, in the view 
of any candid mind, will set the question at rest. 

2. In the examination of the particulars which give 
evidence of the utter insufficiency of the light of nature 
for the guidance of man, we shall be brief, because the 
subject matter of the next chapter will likewise have a 
bearing upon this point. 

3. (1.) We will first glance at those nations or tribes 
who have never been brought within the influence of 
Revelation, but are to this day under the sole direction 
of the light of nature. Take the Aborigines of our 
own land: — What had this light done for them previous 
to the arrival of our forefathers ? how much of know- 
ledge had they derived from it 1 and how far had they 
been elevated, and their condition improved by its teach- 
ings ? and how did its fostering influences affect the 
relative virtues, as justice, mercy, forbearance, forgive- 
ness, &c. 1 Let their actions answer ; their constant 
wars, their hatred of enemies, their horrid cruelties to 
captives, their love of revenge, and the murder of the 
innocent for the crime of the guilty. And even at this 
hour, what better can be said of them ? They are yet 
ignorant of God, of his character and government. 
They speak of 14 the Great Spirit," it is true ; but their 
language and conduct with respect to him, show how 
gross are their conceptions of what belongs to Deity. # 
Their knowledge of right and wrong is set forth in 
facts such as follow : — " Before our intercourse with 
them, a universal custom existed among them of de- 



* Some of them worship the sun and fire as a deity. Am. Ant. p. 209. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 83 



stroying most of their female children in infancy. 
Their excuse was, that they were quite as much trouble 
to rear, and consumed just as much food as a male 
child ; yet, when grown up, were not fit to go to war 
as their boys were." * Stewart says of the Sandwich 
Isles, that " two thirds of the infants born perish by the 
hands of their own parents ; " f and Ellis informs us 
that " they sometimes strangle them, but most frequently 
bury them alive." The same is also true of the natives 
of the Society Islands, or was previous to the introduc- 
tion of Christianity. In South America, in former 
times, the Peruvians offered up human victims upon 
their altars. The Mexicans did the same, and to a 
most shocking extent, insomuch that they are said to 
have sacrificed at least ten thousand victims annually. 
Such was the light of nature to these people. 

4. If we go to other countries, we shall find a like ig- 
norance of God, his government, and human duty. 
The state of China with regard to religious knowledge, 
is doubtless familiar to every one;| as is that also of 
India, where idols without number are set up for wor- 
ship, § and the most abominable and horrid ceremonies 



* Nar. New Zeal. p. 244. | P. 251. cited by Turner. 

| u The most of the images worshipped are said to be of evil spirits, and 
for which they give this single reason, — that the good spirits will not injure 
them; and the evil, or bad ones, by this attention or devotion, may be pre- 
vented from doing so." As to their morals, it is added — " there is not a virtue 
held sacred among them, nor a vice they do not practice." Add to this the 
account of Jos and the sacred hogs, and we have the light of nature for China. 
Reynolds' Voyage of the Potomac, p. 348. 

§ Home says they have no less than three hundred and thirty millions of 
deities ! This is perhaps a round number ; but if we say only one hundred 
millions, it will probably satisfy the reader that nature has not been a very 
faithful teacher to these people. 



84 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



performed in connection therewith. Obscenity and 
blood mark every step of their superstitions, and no 
man who has a heart to feel, can contemplate the pic- 
ture without shuddering. Exaggeration is altogether 
out of the question, the reality of cruelty and licentious- 
ness, is worse than any description can make it.* 
Yet these people have had the benefit of the light of 
nature. How much are they improved by its teach- 
ings ? 

5. If we turn an eye to other portions of the earth, 
we shall find the same witness. Persia, Africa, Suma- 
tra, and many other places, show how little dependence 
is to be put in the revelations of nature. The Persians 
believe in two gods, Ormaze, the author of good, formed 
out of light, and Ahrimanes, the author of evil, formed 
out of darkness. They supposed Ormaze made six 
gods as good as himself, and Ahrimanes opposed to 
them six wicked ones. Afterwards he made twenty- 
four other gods, and shut them up in an egg; but 
Ahrimanes made twenty-four evil ones who cracked 
the egg, and thus good and evil became mixed. " In 



* The following notices of Juggernaut will show this : — "We know that we 
are approaching Juggernaut, though fifty miles distant, by the human bones 
which we have seen for some days strown by the way." " The walls, gates, 
and tower, of the temple, are covered with indecent emblems in durable 
sculpture, freshly painted for the occasion, and made the object of sensual 
gaze by both sexes." u A pilgrim has laid himself down on his face, and is 
crushed to death by the wheels of the tower." " Yesterday a woman devoted 
herself to the idol." The sand-plains by the sea are whitened with the bones 
of pilgrims ; and the place called by the English Golgotha, is where the dead 
bodies are thrown, and dogs and vultures are constantly seen there." Bu- 
chanan's Researches, pp. 101 — 113. Boston, 1811. This should be uuiversally 
read. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 85 



Tartary, the Philippine Isles, and some parts of Africa, 
the objects of worship are the sun, moon, and stars, the 
four elements, and serpents ; at Tonquin, the four 
quarters of the earth; in Guinea, birds, fishes, and even 
mountains." The Rejangs, as they are called, of Suma- 
tra, believe that tigers are endowed with the spirits of 
departed men ; and so strong is this superstition, that 
they will not put one of these animals to death, except 
in actual self-defence. Indeed, the very name of tiger 
inspires them with awe, and they have a belief among 
them, that in some remote and hitherto unfrequented 
portion of the island, these animals have a village, a 
court, and live in huts thatched with women's hair." # 
They also believe that trees are inhabited by spirits. 
Dahomey, in the western part of Africa, affords proof 
of the morality of the light of nature. The sovereign 
is a finished despot ; his people view him as a superior 
being; the greatest among them consider it a privilege 
to prostrate themselves on their faces before him ; all 
the unmarried -females in the kingdom are his property 
and at his disposal ; he selects the most beautiful for 
himself and sells the rest ; at the great national festival 
he moistens the graves of his ancestors with the blood 
of human victims ; and when he would send them a 
letter, he gives it to a slave, and orders his head cut off, 
that when dead he may go and deliver it. The floor 
of his apartment is formed of human skulls, and his 
palaces and temples are decorated with the skulls and 



* Reynolds' Journal of the Potomac's voyage, p. 171. 



86 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

bones of slaughtered enemies."* Among the Harapo- 
ras of the Eastern Isles, no person is permitted to marry, 
till he can show the skull of a man whom he has killed. 
In the interior of Borneo, and the neighboring islands, 
they not only kill and eat their criminals and prisoners, 
but even their relatives, regarding it as a pious ceremo- 
ny. Thus when a man becomes aged and infirm, those 
who are nearest and dearest to him deprive him of life, 
and devour his remains in a solemn banquet, f 

6. Such are the facts with regard to the sufficiency 
of the light of nature, in teaching man concerning the 
true God, and his duties to his fellow-man. These peo- 
ple have all been under the direction of the light of na- 
ture, so far as it had come to them ; they never have been 
influenced by Revelation or by the Christian religion, 
and we see see in their case, how capable man is to 
guide himself without it ; we see that, notwithstanding 
the excellency of nature's teachings, they have been, 
and are, addicted to the most superstitious, cruel, and 
abominable rites that it is possible to imagine. But per- 
haps it will be said that it is unfair to make these a 
criterion, as they are among the most ignorant and de- 
graded of the human race. Well, suppose they are ; if 
the light of nature be sufficient for their guidance and 
instruction in morals, why are they so degraded and ig- 
norant ? The very objection to these examples destroys 
the theory. However, we are not disposed to press this, 
but are willing to take more favorable specimens, and 



* Discov. in Africa, p. 197. | Buchanan'* Researches, pp. 144 — 145. See 
also Irving's Columbus Abridged, p. 147. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



87 



if the result be not equally horrible, it will be equally- 
decisive. 

7. (2.) Take the philosophers of old, the wise men 
of ancient days. The Egyptians, from whom the world 
received the rudiments of philosophy, and indeed of all 
knowledge, were considered the wisest and most advanc- 
ed people on earth, yet worshipped the Ibis, the Ich- 
neumon, the Crocodile, and a thousand other like dei- 
ties.* It may be affirmed that they had more exalted 
notions of religious things ; but, grant that they did, 
they were not benefited by them, for they continued, 
notwithstanding, to worship these animals. And if the 
philosophers of Greece and Rome advanced a step be- 
yond these, it was with many but a step. Xenocrates, 
believed that the air was filled with powerful evil spirits, 
who, being of morose and savage tempers, took pleasure 
in witnessing scourgings, lamentations, fastings, &c. 
and having been gratified with such exhibitions would 
do no farther mischief. The Areopagus of Athens, 
the most celebrated court of ancient times, banished Stil- 
po for denying that the statue of Minerva was a real 
god. Behold the wisdom of these renowned judges ! 
Cicero makes the stoic Balbiis affirm that the Deity by 
his nature partakes of every thing ; that he is Ceres on 
earth, Neptune in the sea, and is called by other names 
in other places; and hence that all these gods should be 



*" The priests of Egypt, Persia, India, etc., pretended to bind the gods to 
their idols, and make them descend from heaven at pleasure ; they threaten 
the sun and moon to reveal the secret mysteries, to shake the heavens, " &c, 
Euseb. Trepar. Evang. cited by Volney, Ruins, p. 126. 



88 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

worshipped.* "The majority of philosophers," says 
Porphyry, " acknowledge no other gods, of all those re- 
cognised by the Egyptians, than such as are commonly 
called planets and constellations. They believe that the 
acts of our will, and the motions of our bodies depend 
upon those of the stars to which they are subjected."! 
Plutarch tells us, that Anaximarrder affirmed the stars 
to be the eternal gods ; Democritus, that Deity was a 
fiery storm, the soul of the world ; Epicurus, that all 
the gods had human forms ; and Diagoras, Theodorus, 
and Euthemerus, that there were no gods at all. Soc- 
rates, Plato, Pythagoras, the stoic school, and even the 
polished Cicero, believed in inferior divinities, paid 
worship to some of them, and taught and practised in 
accordance with the wild superstitions of their country. 
Zeno thought the sky was the Supreme Deity (Summus 
Deus mente praeditus :) Anaxemenes, that the air was 
a Deity ; Xenoc rates, of whom we have before spoken, 
that there were eight gods ; five in the moving planets, 
one composed of all the fixed stars, which are like his 
limbs, another the sun, and the eighth the moon.J 
Yarro divided the gods into three departments; those 
invented by the poets, those established by the philoso- 
phers, and those set up by the magistrates ; and he takes 
great credit to himself that he had taught his country- 
men of all the gods they should serve, and the manner 



* De nat. deorum, 1. ii. c. 28. cited by Montesquieu. Pol. des Rom. dans la 
Itel. This is doubtless the meaning of Virgil also, Georg. iv. 221, 222. iEneid, 
vi. 726. 

f Porphyry Epist. ad Jan. Ruins, p. 121; 
% Turner, v. ii. p. 56. Note. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



89 



in which each was to be worshipped, so that they might 
know whom to address at any given time, and how.* 
It is probable, however, that Varro had no faith himself 
in these gods, which but proves his servile hypocrisy 
and dishonesty, A philosopher of the Eclectic school 
affirms, that " the earth is an animal, endued with a di- 
vine soul, and a divine body, containing an immaterial 
intellect, and a divine soul energizing this intellect — so 
that the earth is a divine animal, full of intellectual and 
animastic essences."! 

8. The preceding is sufficient to show how far these 
learned and admired philosophers were benefited by the 
light of nature. They were the very oracles of the an- 
cient world, the literary wonders of Greece and Rome, 
and yet how absurd and puerile their notions of sacred 
things, and how far their loftiest conceptions fell short 
of the being, character and perfections of the true God. 
Nevertheless, these were the best instructions they could 
gather, with all their labor, from the teachings of nature. 
And so wild, contradictory, and uncertain, were they, 
that Cicero advised to remain in doubt, or at least ap- 
peared to think it best ; while the great Socrates candid- 
ly confessed that he despaired of finding truth, unless a 
divine instructer should be sent to mankind, whom 
he seemed indeed to expect. Of the morals of these 
philosophers, as resulting from the light of nature, we 
shall speak in the next chapter, to which this particular 
more properly belongs. 



* Priestley's Institutes, Part II. c. i. § ii. t Turner, v. ii. 107. Note. 
7 



90 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



9. We are aware that the unbelievers of the present 
day affirm, that these errors of the ancients are owing, 
not to the insufficiency of the light of nature, but to their 
non-improvement or improper application of it. To 
this we say, they improved it as far, and as correctly, 
as it enabled them to see. But this stricture upon such 
as Socrates, Plato, Cicero, &c, comes with an ill grace 
from the modest men of whom we speak. However, 
we are perfectly willing to follow them even to the end, 
and shall therefore notice some of the expositions of the 
light of nature, by the wisdom of modern scepticism. 

10. (3.) Hobbes, who wrote about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, says that inspiration is a supernat- 
ural gift, yet that pretence to it is madness — that worship 
is due to God, yet all religion is nonsense — that a sove- 
reign is not bound by any obligation of truth or justice ; 
and that every one has a lawful right to all things, and 
may get them if he can — that the civil law is the only 
rule of right and wrong, of good and evil, just and un- 
just, honest and dishonest ; and that antecedent to Such 
laws, every action is in its own nature indifferent ; that 
there is nothing good or evil in itself; that all things are 
measured by what every man judgeth fit, where there is 
no civil government, and by the laws of society where 
there is. Tindal says that the religion of nature is 
plain even to the most ignorant, and God could not make 
it more plain by revelation : but at the same time declares 
that almost all mankind have had unworthy notions of 
God, and wrong apprehensions of natural religion, hav- 
ing grossly mistaken it, and imbibed a superstition 
worse than Atheism. Chubb asserts that God will 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 91 



deal with men according to their works ; and yet will 
not judge them for impiety or ingratitude to him, nor 
for unkindness and injustice to each other, and has no 
concern with the good or evil done by man — that all 
religions are alike, and that it is no matter what religion 
a man embraces. Lord Bolingbroke says, power 
and wisdom are the only attributes of God, yet ascribes 
every other perfection to him — that God does not con- 
cern himself with human affairs at all— that divines are 
to be censured for saying that he made men to be happy, 
yet asserts himself that God made them to be happy— 
that the religion of nature is clear to all mankind, 
and yet that the greatest part of mankind are ignorant of 
it — that self-love is the great law of nature, and yet that 
universal benevolence is the great law of nature — that 
there is no conscience in man, except artificially — and 
that it is more natural to believe in many gods, than to 
believe in one. As to morality, he affirms, that ambi- 
tion, avarice, sensuality, &c, may be lawfully gratified, 
if safely — that man is only a superior animal — that the 
chief end of man is to gratify the appetites and inclina- 
tions of the flesh, — that polygamy is the religion of na- 
ture — that adultery is no violation of it, and that there 
is no wrong except in the most brutal lewdness. The 
celebrated, the shrewd, the philosophical Hume asserts 
that there is no reason to believe that the universe had 
a cause; and yet that it is universally allowed, that 
nothing exists without a cause — that there are no sound 
arguments in proof of a God, and yet that it would be 
unreasonable to believe God wise and good — that what 
we call perfections in God, may be defects ; that is to 
say, that justice, goodness, truth, &c, may be divine de= 



92 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY* 



fects. In his private correspondence he affirms, that 
self-denial and humility are not virtues, but are abso- 
lutely injurious — that pride, self-esteem, ingenuity, &c, 
are virtues, that adultery must be practised, if men would 
gain all the advantages of life, and if generally practised 
would in time cease to be scandalous, and if secretly and 
frequently practised, would soon be thought no crime' 
Voltaire and Helvetius advocated the unrestrained 
indulgence of sensual appetites; and Helvetius affirms 
that it is impolitic to regard adultery as a vice, and 
moreover, that it is useful ; while Voltaire practised it 
to a shameless and beastly extent, as his private life 
fully shows. The hypocrisy, treachery, cruelty and 
profligacy of this last are too foul to be repeated.* 

11. Such then are the precepts, doctrines, and morals 
of these oracles of modern infidelity, these worshippers 
of Reason ; and we see in the picture how far the light 
of nature has served to guide them in the path of truth, 
of morality, and right. No excuse can be offered for 
them : they were not ignorant, but professed them- 
selves philosophers : they had the experience of the 
past, and all the concentrated light of the present; and 
yet how widely, how fearfully have they erred, and that 
upon points of the utmost importance to the interests 
and happiness of man, and to the virtue and well-being 
of society! The principles and precepts mentioned, 
are of such a character as to startle even the boldest 
minds, and we cannot but feel that if this be the light 
of nature, it is surely not the light of truth or duty. 



* For the materials of this paragraph, we are indebted to " Leland's View 
of Deistical writers," London, 1757. Boston Atheneum. Also to Home, 
who copied from him, and to Priestley's Institutes, Part IT. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



93 



12. We have now finished our examination. In 
the progress of it, we have considered, 1st, the tribes 
and people who are in a savage or barbarous state — 
2d, the philosophers of Egypt, Greece, and Rome — 
and 3d, the philosophers of our own day ; and we 
have found in the belief, the doctrines and practices of 
these separate divisions, and of the whole, proof irre- 
futable that the light of nature is utterly insufficient to 
meet the intellectual, moral, and religious wants of man. 
And here we must be permitted to add, in confirmation 
of this result the testimony of the celebrated Mr Vol- 
ney. He says, in his work on that subject, that the 
law, or light of nature is "evident and palpable," con- 
sisting entirely of " facts always present to the senses " 
■ — that it is " rational, just, pacific, and tolerant" — that 
it is " equally beneficent to all men, teaching them the 
true means of becoming better and happier," and is 
" alone sufficient to render them happier and better."* 
Now, if we turn to a passage in the Ruins, we shall see 
this beautiful theory all prostrated in the dust by solemn 
facts. "We shall find," says he, "in the most celebra- 
ted of ancient states, enormous vices and cruel abuses, 
the true causes of their decay ; we shall find in general 
that the principles of government were atrocious ; that 
insolent robberies, barbarous wars, and implacable ha- 
treds were raging from nation to nation ; that natu- 
ral right was unknown ; that morality was perverted by 
senseless fanaticism and deplorable superstition ; that a 
dream, a vision, an oracle were constantly the causes of 
vast commotions."! And yet these nations had ever 



* Law of Nature, c. ii. 



f Ruins, c. xiii. 



94 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

before them and around them, the " pacific and tolerant " 
light of nature, which was " alone sufficient to render 
them happier and better ! " This testimony, then, com- 
ing from Mr Volney, an enemy to revelation, and a fol- 
lower of the light of nature, sets the seal to all that we 
have said, and writes upon the very forehead of modern 
scepticism the sentence of everlasting condemnation. 

13. Here then is the conclusion of the matter as far 
as we have proceeded. 1st. There is a God. 2d. From 
the character of God, from the ignorance of man, and 
the insufficiency of the light of nature as a guide, a rev- 
elation is both reasonable and probable. In the next 
chapter we shall attempt to show the necessity of the 
Christian, or a similar revelation, at the time this pro- 
fesses to have been made, by a consideration of the then 
existing state of the moral and religious world, 



CHAPTER IV. 



NECESSITY OF A REVELATION PROVED FROM THE RE- 
LIGIOUS AND MORAL STATE OF THE HEATHEN WORLD 
PREVIOUS TO THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
IS THAT NECESSITY ANSWERED BY CHRISTIANITY % 

SECTION L 

RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 

1. The conclusion at which we arrived in the preced- 
ing- chapter with regard to a revelation, was, that it was 
reasonable and probable ; which conclusion was drawn 
from an examination of facts. In the present chapter 
we shall attempt, pursuing the same course, to demon- 
strate the necessity of a revelation. In doing this, we 
shall call up in review the religious opinions and moral 
practices of the heathen world prior to Christ's appear- 
ance upon earth. It will be our object to show, that at 
that time its condition in these respects was such as to 
call loudly, so to speak, for a reform ; to show that men 
universally, the learned and unlearned, the wise man 
and the fool, the philosopher, and the peasant, were all 
reduced to a common level, had all become so bewil- 
dered, and blinded, and corrupted, that they were inca„ 



96 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



pable of discovering truth, or of defining the great 
guiding principles of human duty. In connection with 
'this we shall endeavor to make it appear that the 
Christian religion was perfectly adapted to their condi- 
tion, perfectly fitted to reform their errors of belief and 
practice, and to give them correct conceptions of those 
things, the knowledge of which was necessary to their 
happiness and the welfare of society. Let it not, how- 
ever, be inferred from this that we take it for granted 
Christianity is of God. This is not the intention. At 
the present stage of our inquiry, we look upon it simply 
as a religion professing to be suited to the then existing 
circumstances of mankind, and calculated to promote 
their highest interests ; and by this rule we are disposed 
to test it. If it meet the test, and we discover in its 
principles and precepts this entire fitness and adaptation 
to the condition and wants of the world, we shall have 
reason, not perhaps to believe it true, but certainly to 
think favorably of it — yea, more, we shall have a strong 
presumptive proof of its divine origin. 

2. In the examination of this subject, we shall, for the 
sake of convenience and perspicuity, take it up by sepa- 
rate particulars or articles; giving first the heathen 
opinions or practices, and following these with the prin- 
ciples proffered by Christianity as corrective substitutes- 

I. OPINIONS RESPECTING GOD. 

1. Heathenism. This particular has been noticed 
somewhat at length in the preceding chapter, so far as 
the views of the philosophers were concerned ; and we 
shall therefore present in this place the views or belief 
of the great body of the people. In every respect they 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



97 



entertained the grossest and most inconsistent notions of 
Deity, or rather of deities, for they knew nothing of the 
one God, but believed in and worshipped gods innume- 
rable, and of all characters and grades, from the thun- 
dering Jove to the petty spirit presiding over a grove or 
pond.* To these they raised statues, altars, and tem- 



* The following notice of the heathen deities, designed to show how great 
was the need of a reformation in this respect, may not be unacceptable to the 
reader Celestial gods. Jupiter, or Jupiters, for Varro reckons 300 of them — 
Apollo, Sol or tbe Sun, Mercury, Bacchus, Mars. Celestial goddesses. Juno 
Minerva, Venus, Latona, Aurora. Terrestrial gods. Saturn, Janus, Vulcan, 
Eolus, Mormus. Terrestrial goddesses. Vesta, Cybele, Ceres, The Muses, of 
whom there were nine, Themis, Astraea, Nemesis. Rural deities. Pan, Sil- 
vanus, Silenus, Priapus, Terminus, the Satyrs and Fauns. Rural goddesses. 
Diana, Pales, Flora, Feronia, Pomona, the Nymphs, Rusina, Collina, Vallonia> 
Hippona, Bubona, Seia, Runcina, Proserpine, Volusia, Patelina, Lactucina, 
Malura, Hostilina, Tutelina, Mellona. Agricultural gods, Occator, Sator, 
Robigus, Stercutus, Nodosus. To show the folly and degradation of the peo- 
ple, we will mention some particulars connected with agriculture. They wor- 
shipped Stercutus, when they manured the ground ; Sato:, when they sowed ; 
Occator when they harrowed ; Runcina when they weeded. They worshipped 
Seia that she would take care of the seed in the ground ; Proserpine when it 
came out of the earth ; Robigus, that, he would avert blasting; Nodosus, that 
he would take care of the joints of the stalk ; Flora, that sffe would take care 
of the blossom ; Lactucina, of the ear in milk ; Mutura,of the ear in maturi- 
ty ; Hortilina, that the ears might grow even; Tutelina, when it was reaped ; 
and Pilumnus, when it was made into bread. This will suffice to show their 
blindness, yet this is not all ; they had separate deities who guarded the horses, 
oxen, stab'es, &c. Sea deities. Neptune, Triton, Oceanus, Nereus, Palsemon, 
Proteus, Glaucus, &c. Infernal deities. Pluto, l'r< serpine ; three Fates — 
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos ; three Furies — Alecto, Tmphone and Mageera ; 
and a host of monsters. Besides these now mentioned, there are Penates, 
or household gods, belonging to every family; gods presiding over kingdoms, 
cities, and houses. There were no less than sixteen deities worshipped, or to 
whom offerings were made, on the occasion of marria»e, besides those presid- 
ing over women in labor. Thirteen presided over children at their birth and 
afterward. A deity was assigned to every member of the body — the head was 
sacred to Jupiter, the breast to \eptune, the feet to Mercuiy, &c. In addition 
to these, they built temples to, and worshipped, Virtue, Health, Hope, Jus- 
tice, Clemency, Fidelity, Chastity, Peace, Science, Art j also, Feve^ Feas 5 



98 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



pies, and to each and every one a peculiar and distinct 
service was allotted, consisting of rites and ceremonies 
the most absurd, and in many cases the most revolting 
and disgusting. At one time they worshipped this 
deity, at another, that ; to-day they sought the protection 
of one god, tomorrow swore fidelity to another, perhaps 
the enemy of the former ; this hour, they brought as an 
offering, gold and silver, the next, a little salt and meal ; 
here they paid their devotions with groans, and prostra- 
tions, and scourgings, and there with revelling and 
drunkenness. Farther information may be gathered 
from the note below, whence some notion may be formed 
of the countless multitude of their gods. 

2. Christianity. To do away this error, to remove 
this host of imaginary gods, Christianity addressed to 
the heathen world such testimonies as the following : — 
" There is one god." 1 Tim. ii. 5. "An idol is noth- 
ing in the world, and there is none other God but one. 
For though there be that are called gods, whether in 
heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords 
many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of 
whom are all things." 1 Cor. viii. 4 — 6. u Keep 



Pain, Indignation, Shame, Impudence, Calumny, Fraud, Discord, Suspicion, 
Envy, War, Tiiumph, Victory, Liberty, Money, Love, Laughter, &c. &c. 
The Egyptians worshipped beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, herbs, vegeta- 
bles, &c. These absurdities subjected them to the sarcasm of Juvenal, who 
exclaims, alluding to the onions which they worshipped, 
"O sanctas gentes 

l< A devout people, whose gods grow in their gardens." 
This notice will satisfy the reader, we presume, that the world in this de~ 
partment, at le:ist, needed to be enlightened. More may be seen in Tooke's 
Pantheon, Adam's Rom. Ant. and Pol. des. Rom. dans la Rel. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 99 



yourselves from idols." 1 John v. 21. " They be no 
gods which are made with hands." Acts xix. 26. 
" The Lord our God is one Lord." " Thou hast said 
the truth ; for there is one God ; and there is none 
other but he." Mark xii. 29, 32. " We ought not to 
think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or 
stone, graven by art and man's device." Acts xvii. 29. 
" He that believeth there is one God, doeth well." 
James ii. 19. " There is one God and Father of all, 
who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Eph, 
iv. 6. Here then we see Christianity correcting the 
first great error of the pagan world, and teaching them 
that there is one God, and none other but one. 

U: RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. 

1. Heathenism. In the worship paid their gods, the 
ancients gave place to all possible folly and extravagance. 
They erected magnificent temples and altars, and en- 
riched them with the most splendid offerings. Augus- 
tus bestowed upon the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, at 
one time, gold and jewels to the value of six or eight 
millions of dollars. Their gifts were of various kinds, 
according to the character of the god, the first fruits of 
the field, salt, meal, cakes, oil, wine, incense, goats, ox- 
en, &c. If any calamity came upon them, they referred 
it to the anger of some god ; and immediately loaded 
his altar with presents and sacrifices. If prosperity at- 
tended them, it was referred to the favor of the gods, 
and the same course was pursued — sacrifices were de- 
creed, offerings without number were brought to their 
temples, statues were raised to them, and every thing 
done which was thought to be pleasing to them, 



100 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

2. Christianity. In regard to these foolish super- 
stitions, Christianity thus spake to the heathen world : — 
" We preach unto you that ye should turn from these 
vanities unto the living God." Acts xiv. 15. " Ye wor- 
ship, ye know not what." John iv. 22. " God dwelleth 
not in temples made with hands ; neither is worship- 
ped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, 
seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." 
Acts xvii. 24, 25. " God is a spirit, and they that wor- 
ship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." 
John iv. 24. " Offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to 
God." 1 Peter ii. 5. u To do good and communicate, 
forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." 
Heb. xiii. 16 "To love the Lord God with all the 
heart and understanding, and to love thy neighbor as 
thyself, is more than all offerings and sacrifices." Mark 
xii. 33, How much purer and nobler such worship as 
this! 

III. ORIGIN OF THE WORLD. 

1. Heathenism* Some believed that the world was 
brought forth of Chaos; some that it was begotten of 
Night; others, that it came from an egg; that water 
and matter were from the beginning, and produced it; 
that condensed air and Chaos united in its formation ; * 
and some believed it to have been the result of chance,! 
or a fortuitous concurrence of atoms ; and some believed 
that it was eternal, having existed in its present state 
without beginning.^ 



* Turner, ii. 42. f Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 

% K If the world is eternal, why have not other poets sung of other events 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



101 



2. Christianity. To these wild and contradictory 
dreams, Christianity replied — " God made the world, 
the heavens, the earth, and the sea, and all things that 
are therein." Acts xiv. 15. xvii. 24. " He that built 
all things is God." Heb. iii. 4. " The Lord in the be- 
ginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heav- 
ens are the work of his hands." Heb. i. 10. " The 
Lord God is worthy to receive glory, and honor, and 
power; for he has created all things, and for his pleas- 
ure they are and were created." Rev. iv. 11. Thus did 
Christianity solve the problem of creation, and give to 
the unlearned and the philosopher a rational answer to 
their inquiries, and an answer at once the most simple 
and sublime. 

IV. ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN RACE, 

1. Heathenism. The Arcadians, and some of the 
Athenians, supposed that men sprang out of the earth, 
like grasshoppers, and probably connected them in some 
way with these insects, as they wore an image of one, 
made of gold or silver for an ornament.* The Egyp- 
tians believed that men grew out of the mud of the 
Nile. Anaximander taught that they originated from 
fishes ; being nourished in their bellies, and then spew- 
ed out on land. Hence he condemned the eating of 
fishes, because they were our parents ! Some believed 
that men came out of the earth like swamp plants or vege- 



beyond the Theban or Trojan wars ? Why have not the deeds of earlier men 
been immortalized ?" Lucretius, De rerum natura lib. v. 325 — 330. 
* Turner, Sac. Hist. ii. 86. 



102 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

tables.* Others believed that they came from the wa- 
ter, some of them with two wings and two faces, one 
male and the other female ; some had the legs and horns 
of goats ; others were half horse and half men : and 
others had a human head with the body of a bull. 

2. Christianity. In the place of these absurd vaga- 
ries, Christianity brought the following corrections : — 
" God hath made of one blood all nations of men, to 
dwell on all the face of the earth." Acts xvii. 26. " In 
him we live and move, and have our being " — " we are 
his offspring — he giveth to all life and breath." 25, 28. 
" From the beginning of the creation God made them 
male and female." Mark x. 6. " God is the Father of 
all." Eph. iv. 6. " We are his workmanship." ii. 10. 
Such was the language addressed to the wanderers, 
communicating to them the assurance that " one God 
created them," and, therefore, that they had " one com- 
mon Father." Could anything be better suited to their 
wants than this ? 

V. A FUTURE STATE. 

1. Heathenism. That the ancients had some notions 



* " Gluun prorepserunt," et seq. Horace, L. i. Sat iii. How much does this 
philosophy of Rome excel that of the natives of Hayti, when Columhus first 
visited them ! " They ascribed to a cavern the origin of the human race, be- 
lieving that large men issued forth from a great aperture, but the little men 
from a little cranny." 11 For some time they wandered about disconsolately 
without females, until coming near a small lake, they beheld certain animals 
among the branches of the trees, which proved to be women. On attempting 
to catch them, they were found to be as slippery as eels, so that it was impos- 
sible to hold them, until they employed certain persons whose hands had been 
rendered rough by a kind of leprosy. These succeeded in securing four of 
them; and from these slippery females the world was peopled." Irving's Co- 
lumbus Abridged ; pp. 146 — 147. The light of nature ! 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



103 



of a future existence is admitted ; but they were of the 
wildest and most unreasonable character. The follow- 
ers of Odin believed it to consist in sensual gratification. 
The Elysium of the poets, was but a renewal of earthly 
pleasures ; and of these they are sometimes represented as 
being weary. Homer makes Achilles say, that lie 
would rather be a rustic, work for hire, and live on the 
meanest food, if he could be on earth. Virgil and 
Horace give us to understand, that their heroes would 
gladly exchange their place in Elysium, for the hum- 
blest condition on earth. Both represent this heaven as 
no very desirable place.* The philosophers had little, 
if any, faith in a future existence. Socrates, Plato, and 
Cicero, may be said to have hoped, rather than believed 
in the immortality of the soul. Socrates said just before 
his death — " I shall die, and you will continue to live : 
but which of us will be in the better state is known only 
to God. I hope I am going to good men, but this I would 
not confidently assert." Cicero, who argued strongly 
for this doctrine, says, after all, that it is questionable ; 
and adds, that however desirable it might be, the phi- 
losophers who treated of it, had rather promised than 
proved it. And about the time Christ, made his appear- 
ance, " the belief of a future life was generally rejected, 
both by the philosophers and the vulgar. f Such was 
the uncertain and gloomy state of the heathen world 
with regard to this interesting question. 

2. Christianity. To dissipate this darkness which 



*iEneid, lib. vi. Car. lib. iv. Ode 6. Gould's edit, 
| Priestley's Institutes, p. II. c. i. § 4. 



104 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



brooded over the hopes and happiness of mankind, 
Christianity brought them the certainty of a future ex- 
istence, demonstrated by the actual resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead. It declared to them that he had 
" risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them 
that slept;" and that "he which raised up the Lord 
Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus." 1 Cor. xv. 2. 
Cor. iv. " For he hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inherit- 
ance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, 
reserved in heaven for us." 1 Peter i. 3. "If our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
a building of God, not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." 2 Cor. v. 1. " For this mortal must put on 
immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorrup- 
tion ; and as we have borne the image of the earthy, 
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 1 Cor. 
xv. Such is the cheering language which Christianity 
addressed to l he heathen world, such the glorious in- 
heritance which it offered as a substitute for doubts, 
and fears, and general unbelief. 

3. Thus have we noticed some of the more impor- 
tant particulars of Pagan belief and unbelief, and pre- 
sented the corrections which Christianity proposed, 
the doctrines which it offered the w r orld in their stead. 
Let it be understood that we have not pronounced 
Christianity true, nor reasoned upon this presumption; 
we have treated it simply as a religion offering itself as 
a substitute for that of heathenism. Upon several great 
points, we have compared together their respective doc- 
trines; and having done this, we are perfectly willing 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 105 

to leave the reader to decide for himself which is 
the more reasonable, the more worthy, and useful. 
All we ask is, that, if he finds Christianity pour- 
ing- in upon the night of heathenism, a light which 
changes its darkness into day — if he finds it impart- 
ing to men more correct, sublime and ennobling views 
of God, of creation, and of human destiny, than they 
had ever known before — if he finds suchYruits grow- 
ing out of Christianity, all we ask of the reader is 
that he shall give it due credit therefor, and judge of 
its claims accordingly. 
8 



SECTION II. 



MORALS. 

1. When speaking of the opinions of the philosophers, 
for the purpose of showing how far they were benefit- 
ed by the light of nature, it w r as observed that a notice 
of their morals would be given in the present chapter. 
The reader will have perceived also, that in comment- 
ing upon the religious worship of the heathen world in 
the preceding section, nothing was said respecting the 
abominations which constituted a large part of it. The 
notice of these was reserved likewise for this place, that 
the morals of pagan philosophy, religion, and jurispru- 
dence, might be thrown into one body, and be judged 
together, with regard to the light of nature, and the ne- 
cessity of a revelation. We shall now proceed to the 
examination. 

2. (I.) Philosophy. Many of the philosophers of 
Greece and Rome approved of suicide. Hegesias de- 
claimed in its support, and acquired such note as to be 
called the " Orator of death." He exhorted his disci- 
ples, if they had the least distaste for life, to kill them- 
selves ; and so many followed his advice that he was 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



107 



forbidden to teach his doctrines.* Even the polished 
Pliny, speaking of one of his friends who, being- hope- 
lessly sick, resolved to commit suicide, exclaims, " A 
resolution this, in my estimation, truly heroical, and 
worthy of the highest applause."! Seneca also pleads 
in its behalf, and points out the several ways in which 
it may be done. J Brutus, Cassius, Demosthenes, Zeno, 
Cato, &c, carried this doctrine into practice by killing 
themselves. The Stoics made all crimes alike ; § and 
affirmed that lying was profitable, and that truth was 
honorable only when advantageous. Socrates taught 
his countrymen to regard barbarians as natural ene- 
mies; while Aristotle affirmed that nature intended 
them for slaves. Cicero and Aristotle speak of the for- 
giveness of injuries as weakness and meanness; and 
Plato mentions it as being opposed to the sentiments of 
most of the philosophers. Democritus even applauds 
a spirit of revenge. The Stoics allowed of excessive 
drinking, and Cato, Zeno, and Chrysippus, were ad- 
dicted to it ; the last of whom died in a drunken fit. A 
community of women was recommended by many of 
the philosophers. Cato, of U.tica, was known to have 
lent his wife to Hortensius; and he commended a young 
man for frequenting the brothels. Cicero speaks of 



* Annates de la Vertu, p. 251. " Une foule d'infortunes renoncoit lachement 
a la vie qu'un epoux s'arrachoit a son epouse ; qu'un pere abandonnoit ses 
enfans !" 

t Letters, lib i. Letter xxii. J Morals, c. xi. 

§ Horace, Sat. lib. i. s. iii. To this he justly adds, "sensus moresque re- 
pugnant" — Common sense and morality are opposed to it. Leland says th&t 
Bolingbroke pronounces "their theology and morality alike absurd." 



108 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



fornication as that which was never condemned. Di- 
ogenes taught and practised the most brutal lusts, and 
that in the very streets, pretending to live according to 
nature. Aristippus inculcated nearly the same, as did 
many of the Alexandrian school, maintaining that " cor- 
poreal pleasure was the ultimate end of man."* Final- 
ly, we have the testimony of Cicero and Quintilian to 
confirm the whole. Cicero, speaking of the philoso- 
phers, says — Who is there of all the philosophers, 
whose mind, life, and manners were conformable to right 
reason ? Who ever made his philosophy the law and 
rule of his life, and not a mere show of his wit and 
parts ? Who observed his own instructions, and lived in 
obedience to his own precepts % On the contrary, many 
of them were slaves to filthy lusts, many to pride, many 
to covetousness, &c"f Gluintilian notices the philos- 
ophers of his time as follows — " The most notorious 
vices are screened under the name; and they do not 
labor to maintain the character of philosophers by vir- 
tue and study, but conceal the most vicious lives under 
an austere look and singularity of dress." J Here 
duintilian gives us a summary of the whole system, 
and in this testimony we see the morality of heathen 
philosophy, the precepts and practices of those who 
were regarded as the lights of the world Let us turn 



* Priestley's Institutes, P. II. c. i. §.3. 

f Tusc. Quest. 2. Watson's Institutes. P. I. c. iii. 

\ Quoted by Home, vol. i. p. 16. 

§ Lucian cuts up these philosophers finely in his dialogue, " Menippus et 
Philonides." "Select dialogues of Lucian, with a Latin Translation." JN. 
Y. 1818. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 109 

now and inquire concerning their laws, that we may 
know whether the morality of these was of a higher 
order than that of their philosophy. 

3.(2.) Jurisprudence. The Athenians were allowed 
by law to make slaves of any they thought fit. The laws 
which Lycurgus gave to Sparta allowed a community 
of women ; and encouraged an old man, having a young 
wife, to introduce respectable young men to her bed, 
and receive the fruits of this intercourse as his own. 
They also required the horrible practice of infanticide 
When a child was born, it was immediately taken [to a 
kind of committee composed of aged men , for examina- 
tion. If they pronounced it well formed, and likely to be 
healthy and vigorous., it was given to a nurse ; if other- 
wise it was thrown into a chasm of a neighboring moun- 
tain, or left exposed to wild beasts ! Children were re- 
garded as the property of the state,[and, if weak and un- 
healthy, were considered useless. Hence, we are in- 
formed, mothers were accustomed to bathe their infants 
in wine ; because those who were sickly, or of a feeble 
constitution, being unable to bear it, would die, and thus 
only th© healthy be left.* The laws of Draco punish- 
ed all crimes and misdemeanors with death. He that 
was guilty of murder was put to death, and if his neigh- 
bor was guilty of laziness, he shared the same fate* 
Solon banished these, and was perhaps the wisest law- 
giver of ancient times. The abomination of sodomy 
was countenanced by the laws of several of the states of 



* Plutarch Lycurgus. 



110 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

Greece, and by the Cretans it was directly encouraged 
to prevent the having too many children.* 

4. The Roman law gave the father the power of 
life and death over his children, and he could imprison, 
scourge, and put them to death, if he thought they de- 
served it. The same law required that a slave should 
be put to the rack before giving testimony ; and if a 
master of a family died suddenly, or was killed, his 
slaves, guilty or innocent, were liable to execution. 
Tacitus gives as a horrible example of this in the case 
of one Secundus, a prefect of Rome, who was assassi- 
nated by a slave; in consequence of which his slaves, 
to the number of four hundred, were cruelly put to 
death ! f It was the custom, also, to leave their aged 
and sick slaves to perish, and sometimes, when sick, 
they killed them, as we would kill a sick dog. Thou- 
sands were trained for their gladiatorial shows, and thus 
made to destroy each other for the amusement of the 
people. At Sparta, when the Helot slaves became too 
numerous, they did not hesitate to butcher them until 
their number was sufficiently reduced ; and the boys 
were applauded for killing them by surprise. By a 
law of the Babylonians every woman was required, 
once in her life to present herself before the temple of 
Mylitta or Venus, and receive the embraces of the first 
stranger that offered himself; and the price of her pros- 
titution was paid into the treasury of the temple. f Such 



* Priestley's Institutes, P. II. c. i. $3. f Annal. lib. xiv. c. 42—48. 
X Herodotus, as cited by A. Clarke, on 2 Kings xvii. 30, where the entire 
extract is given, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. ill 

was the morality of the heathen laws. We proceed 
next to that of their religion. 

5. (3.) Religion. At Sparta boys were whipped to 
death in honor of Diana ; and young women in Arca- 
dia, to appease Bacchus. In their divinations they 
murdered infants for the express purpose of raking their 
entrails to gain an insight into futurity. This is wit- 
nessed by the first writers, as Herodotus, Cicero, Taci- 
tus, &c. Horace in one of his Epodes introduces a boy 
entreating the gods, in a most thrilling manner, that 
they will deliver him from the power of the hags who 
are preparing to slay him.* The Cimbri and Celtse 
divined from the convulsions and agonies of human vic- 
tims whom they had ripped open in sacrifice. The 
Gauls, according to Caesar, in times of pestilence or dan- 
ger, made vast images of wicker work, filled them with 
prisoners and criminals, or if these were wanting, with 
innocent persons, and set fire to them as sacrifices to 
their gods, in hopes to appease them, t In Scandinavia, 
now Sweden, they had festivals at which, in time of 
war, nine captives, in peace, nine slaves, were immola- 
ted. Hacon, king of Norway, sacrificed his son, that 
he might be prospered in battle ; and Aune, king of 
Sweden, offered up to Odin his nine sons, that the god 
would prolong his life. The Danes every ninth year 
sacrificed ninety-nine men. The Slavi of Russia pre- 
sented Suetovid, the god of war, with an annual burnt- 
offering of three hundred prisoners. % 



* Epode v. j D e Bello Gallico, lib. vi. $ 16. 

J A. Clarke, Rom. ix. in fine. Hist, of Priestcraft, p. 35. 



112 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

6. At Rome human sacrifices were offered annually 
in the first ages of the Republic. And though in the 
year of the city, 657, this was forbidden by a decree of 
the senate, we still find that two men were slain with 
the usual ceremonies in the Campus Martius, as late as 
the time of Julius Caesar. And Augustus, after having 
subdued L. Antonius, ordered three hundred senators 
and knights to be sacrificed at the altar of Julius, on the 
ides of March, to appease his manes. Seneca speaks of 
this in his clemency.* Men were thrown alive into the 
sea, as offerings to Neptune. Xerxes buried alive nine 
young men and nine virgins, on his march to Greece ; 
and his wife commanded fourteen children of noble Per- 
sian birth, to be sacrificed to the deity which reigned 
beneath the earth. The Carthaginians were accus- 
tomed to sacrifice noble children to Saturn, but after- 
wards'substituted those of slaves and foreigners. When 
besieged by Agathocles, and reduced to extremities, 
they supposed it owing to the anger of Saturn because 
of this deception. Two hundred children of the first 
families in Carthage were, therefore, immediately im- 
mplated to appease his wrath ; and three hundred citi- 
zens voluntarily offered themselves as an additional 
sacrifice to atone for the offence. f The Pelasgi at one 
period sacrificed a tenth part of all their children, in 
obedience to an oracle. The Egyptians of Heliopolis at 
one time murdered three men every day, as an offering 
to Juno. Such were the cruelties of heathen worship. 
Its licentiousness was nothing mferior. 



* Morals, p. 258. Adam's Rom. Ant. p. 2,76* \ Home, i fc p. 6. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 113 



7. As a foundation, the very gods themselves are 
represented as the most drunken, lewd, and abandoned 
characters, that it is possible to conceive ; and countless 
are the stories of their revels and debaucheries. As an 
example : In the first book of the Iliad, Homer informs 
us that Juno, the wife of Jupiter, and queen of heaven, 
became jealous of him, and in an assembly of the gods 
began to quarrel with him. He replies with fierceness, 
and soon all heaven is in a brawl. Vulcan, knowing 
their vulnerable points, brings forth the goblet, and no 
sooner do they get taste of the wine, than they forget 
the fight, and " fall to, like veteran topers, and drink all 
day, until at night-fall, they have just soberness enough 
left to help them to crawl into bed." The influence of 
such a system upon the morals of the people, is easily 
imagined. " Drunkenness on a thousand occasions, be- 
came an act of religious duty ; and Aristotle explains 
the word THoinai (feasts) by an etymological exposi- 
tion " that it was thought a duty to the gods to be 
drunk / " * A }^oung man in Terence justifies himself 
in lewdness by the example of Jupiter; t and the Cre- 
tans excused their licentiousness in the same way. The 
feasts in honor of Bacchus were one continued series 
of riot, revel, and drunkenness; and he who made him- 
self most beastly was most acceptable to the god. The 
festivals of Ceres and Cybele were attended with such 



* See an article in the American Monthly Magazine, entitled "The Ancient 
Literature of Intemperance." 

f The sarcastic Lucian represents Menippus as indulging in all manner of 
vice, which he supposed must be honorable and praise-worthy, because the gods 
did it. Dial. Menip. et. Phil. 



114 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

notorious licentiousness, that married women could not 
attend them with safety. At Sparta, young women ap- 
peared naked at some public exercises ; and " the Ludi 
Florales" of Rome were managed by abandoned prosti- 
tutes, who ran naked, hither and thither, dancing, sing- 
ing, "&c* The Assyrian priests selected the most beau- 
tiful woman of the nation for the use of their god Be- 
lus ; and the Egyptians of Thebes did the same for 
their Jupiter. Many of the temples of the ancient dei- 
ties were supported by prostitution; while others were 
enabled by wealth already acquired to maintain women 
for the use of the gods nominally, but really for the 
priests. The temple of Venus was an example of this 
last ; which, according to Strabo, was so immensely 
rich, that it maintained more than a thousand prosti- 
tutes, dedicated to the service of the goddess. Much 
more of a like character might be added, but the nature 
of the subject is such that we forbear, and refer the read- 
er to those writers who have treated it more at length. f 
8. Such are the abominations of heathenism in its 
three great departments — philosophy, law, and religion. 
And now we ask any candid man to contemplate this 
horrible and revolting picture, and answer, if he does 
not think that the world needed some other guide than 
the light of nature ; if he does not see the necessity of a 
revelation which should lift them from their degrada- 
tion and pollution, and turn them from these rites of 



* Priestley's Institutes, P. I. c. i. § 2 

j See Hist, of Priestcraft, Buchanan, Ireland, Leland, Priestley, Plutarch, 
Athenseus, 1. xiii. &c. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 115 



blood, and cruelty, and iniquity. We believe not that 
there is a rational man living, who can look these things 
steadily in the face, and say, Nay. It only remains 
now to be ascertained whether Christianity was of a 
character to correct and remove these fearful evils. 
We found that so far as opinions were concerned, it was 
perfectly adapted to the condition of the heathen world; 
let us now see if it be equally well adapted to the im- 
provement of its morality. 

9. The great points in which the morals of heathen- 
ism required a thorough reformation may be repeated 
in few words. 1. Neglect and contempt of the virtues 
of humility, love for fellow-men, forgiveness of injuries, 
&c. 2. Cruelty; which consisted in the inhuman treat- 
ment and murder of slaves, the fearful sacrifice of 
men's lives, the destruction of infants, &c. 3. General 
licentiousness — as drunkenness, adultery, fornication, 
and all manner of lewdness. In these respects their 
philosophy, laws, and religion, which sanctioned these 
abominations, called loudly for an entire revolution. 
And now let us turn to the morality which Christianity 
offered in the place of these, and see whether the call 
was answered. 

10. (1.) The humble virtues. " Blessed are the meek, 
and the poor in spirit. Learn of me, for I am meek 
and lowy of heart. Be not puffed up one against another. 
For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what 
hast thou that thou didst not receive? Be ye kind one 
to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Let 
all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and 
evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 



116 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



Recompense no man evil for evil ; be not overcome of 
evil, but overcome evil with good. If thy brother tres- 
pass against thee, forgive him ; if he trespass against 
thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day 
turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive 
him. Ye have heard it hath been said, thou shalt hate 
thine enemy ; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to thern that hate 
you, and pray for them that despiteful! y use you and 
persecute you — that ye may be the children of your 
Father who is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise 
on the evil and the good, and sendeth his rain upon the 
just and the unjust. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger 
feed him, if he thirst give him drink. All things what- 
soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them." Such were the doctrines which Christian- 
ity offered in the place of pride, hatred, and revenge. 

11. (2.) Cruelty. " Be ye merciful as your Father 
also is merciful. Masters do good unto your servants, 
forbearing threatening, giving unto them that which 
is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master 
in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with 
him. Put on bowels of mercies, kindness, long-suffer- 
ing ; and above all, put on charity, which is the bond of 
perfectness, Have compassion one of another ; love as 
brethren ; be pitiful. Thou shalt do no murder. The 
Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to 
save them. Do not kill, for no murderer hath eternal 
life abiding in him. The law is for murderers of fath- 
ers, and murderers of mothers, and for man-slayers. 
He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 117 



showed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judg- 
ment. With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judg- 
ed ; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be meas- 
ured to you again. Blessed are the merciful, for they 
shall obtain mercy. Finally, be of one mind, kindly 
affectioned one to another in brotherly love." 

12. (3.) General licentiousness. " The works of the 
flesh are manifest ; which are adultery, fornication, un- 
cleanness, lasciviousness, envyings, murders, drunken- 
ness, revellings, and such like. We beseech you to 
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 
Fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it 
not be once named among you* neither filthiness, nor 
foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient. 
Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor adulterers, 
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with man-kind, 
nor drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Ye 
have heard it said by them of olden times, Thou shalt not 
commit adultery ; but I say unto you, That whosoever 
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed 
adultery already in his heart. The time past of our life 
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gen- 
tiles, when Ave walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of 
wine, revellings, banquettings, and abominable idola- 
tries ; wherein they think it strange that ye run not with 
them to the same excess of riot. Be not ye, therefore, 
partakers with them ; have no fellowship with the un- 
fruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, 
For it is a shame to speak of those things which are 
done of them in secret. Cast off, therefore, the works 
of darkness, and put on the armor of light ; walk hon- 



118 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



cstly as in the day ; not in rioting and drunkenness, 
not in chambering and wantonness. Live no longer 
in the lusts of the flesh, hut to the will of God. Ab- 
stain from all appearance of evil ; for the grace of God, 
which bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared, 
teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly 
lusts, we should learn to live soberly, righteously, and 
godlily in this present world. Cleanse yourselves from 
all fllthiness of flesh and spirit; for as he that has called 
you is holy, so be ye holy, perfect, even as your Father 
in heaven is perfect." # 

13. Such is the morality of Christianity; such the 
precepts which it offered to the heathen world in ex- 
change for the foul doctrines and practices that have 
been mentioned. And how perfect is its adaptation in 
every respect to their situation. Can any one fail to 
perceive, that many of the exhortations and precepts 
which have been repeated are aimed at the very foun- 
dation of their corruptions and abuses 1 They strike 
down alike the philosophy of the learned, and the su- 
perstitions of the ignorant ; they sweep away together 
the savage cruelty of law and custom, and the licen- 
tiousness and human butchery of idolatry ; and open to 
them a purer and a better way, pouring in upon their 
darkened minds the light of wisdom, and truth, and 
virtue. Thus, while its doctrines on the one hand, cor- 
rect their errors of opinion with regard to Deity and 
his worship; its precepts on the other, correct their er- 



* Matt. v. vii. xi. Luke xvii. Rom. xii. xiii. 1 Cor. iv. vi. 2 Cor. vii. 
Gal. v. Ephesians v. vi. Col. iii. 1 Thess. v. Titus ii. James ii. 1 Peter 
i. ii. iii. iv. 1 John iii, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



119 



rors in morals and practice. Its entire fitness to the 
circumstances of the heathen world is, therefore, made 
manifest beyond ail question ; and it is believed the ver- 
iest sceptic that ever lived, could not have framed a re- 
ligion more perfectly suited, in every particular, to the 
condition of mankind at the period of the promulgation 
of Christianity. 

14. Since, therefore, there is such an exact adaptation 
to circumstances, this religion certainly comes to us 
with a weighty claim upon our favorable attention — yea, 
this very fact seems a strong presumptive proof of its 
divine origin. Be this, however, as it may; one thing 
is nevertheless certain, that whether of God or of man, 
it was precisely such a religion as the world needed. 

15. Once more we note our progress. 1. There is a 
God. 2. A revelation from him is reasonable and proba- 
ble. 3. Its necessity proved from the moral and reli- 
gious condition of the world previous to the coming of 
Christ, 4. Christianity perfectly adapted to this, con- 
dition, in doctrine and precept. — Our next step will be 
to bring forward the direct evidence of the truth of 
Christianity. 



CHAPTER V. 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE TRUTH OF THE 
CHRISTIAN HISTORY. 

SECTION I. 

WERE THERE CHRISTIANS EIGHTEEN HUNDRED YEARS SINCE 1 

1. There is in the world a class of people, or a sect 
of religionists, known by the name of Christians, 
They have a rule of faith and practice contained in their 
sacred books, which commonly pass under the title of 
the " New Testament." This sect is numerous, hav- 
ing spread itself into every part and portion of the 
civilized world; and it is signalized for zeal in the 
diffusion of its doctrines among the nations of the earth. 
The number at present believing these doctrines, is 
about two hundred millions, scattered throughout Amer- 
ica, Europe, Asia, and Africa. We wish to know 
when and how Christians began to exist. They affirm 
that they owe their origin, name, and religion, to one 
Jesus Christ, who Jived eighteen hundred years since, 
and taught, and wrought miracles in Judea. Our first 
object then will be to ascertain the truth of this affirma- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 121 



tion, to learn whether Christians and Christianity have 
been in existence eighteen hundred years. 

2. 1836—1500. That there are multitudes of Chris- 
tians in the world at the present day, is a naked fact, 
which requires no proof. It is an easy matter to trace 
them back three hundred years, that is to say, to the 
year 1500 of the present era. In the year 1620, we 
see the Christian pilgrims landing upon the rock of 
Plymouth. If from this rock we embark for Europe, 
we find the Christians disputing with the Moors for 
the sovereignty of Spain — thence their history leads us 
up through the league formed in France against the 
Protestants to 1572. From this we may go back with 
them through the reigns of Elizabeth and Mary of Eng- 
land — thence to the treaty of Passau for the establish- 
ment of Lutheranism, and from this through the Refor- 
mation by Luther to the year 1500. 

3. 1500—1000. Through the history of Europe, 
we go with the Christians from this first date to their 
expulsion from Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. 
Passing from this to England again, we come to the 
times of WicklifTe the Reformer, who made no small stir 
about the year 1377. Through abundant records of 
the Christians in England, France, Italy, and Germany, 
we may go up to the taking of Ptolemais by the Turks 
in 1291, which event ended the dominion of the Chris- 
tians in that quarter. From this we go back through 
that series of wonderful events, known all the world 
over, by the name of Crusades ; and here we find all 
the Christian nations of Europe, engaged in the enter- 
prise of wresting the Holy Land, from the hands of 

9 



122 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



the Infidel Turks. It is sufficient for us to say that 
the last of these expeditions took place in 1248, and the 
first in 1095. Here then we are left at about the year 
1000. 

4. 1000—500. The history of the Christians from 
1000 backward to 800, is the general and individual 
history of Europe. At the year 800, the celebrated 
Charlemagne was crowned sole emperor of the west ; 
and from him we may follow the Christians upward 
through the contests which raged at this period, to the 
year 713, when they were entirely defeated in Spain, 
and the empire of the Saracens firmly established. 
From this we may travel back with them to the days 
of Mahomet, whose history shows the existence of mul- 
titudes of Christians before him. He was born in 571. 
From this date we find the Christians standing forth in 
bold relief through the whole history of Justinian the 
emperor, and his renowned general Belisarius, who 
stood at their head in defending them against the in- 
roads of the Moors and Vandals on the one hand, and 
the Goths and kindred barbarians on the other. This 
leaves us at the year 500. 

5. 500—300. From the year 500, the Christians 
may be followed upward through the terrible persecu- 
tions which they suffered in Britain, Spain, Gaul, 
Italy, Africa, Persia, &c. Their history is also insep- 
arably associated with that of all the emperors of the 
eastern and western empires, Clovis, Theodoric, Theo- 
dosius, Valentinian, Honorius, &c. In the year 361, 
we find the emperor Julian, who was himself, at first, a 
Christian, but afterwards apostatised, employing all his 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



123 



efforts to destroy Christianity. He wrote a long and 
laborious work against it with the view of proving it 
an imposture, but failed of his object, as his writings did 
not stop the progress of it, though they may, in connec- 
tion with his other acts, have checked it somewhat. 
The next great event which we meet in going back 
from the reign of Julian, is the conversion of Constan- 
tine the great to Christianity, which took place in the 
year 312. This surely proves the existence of Chris- 
tians, and of Christianity, and shows that at this period 
it had acquired much importance, inasmuch as it be- 
came under Constantine the established religion of the 
Roman empire. A few years more carry us back to 
Hierocles, who was a famous opposer of the Christian 
religion, and wrote two books against it, in which he 
endeavored to prove contradictions in the Scriptures, 
and that Jesus was no greater than one Apollonius, 
who, he affirmed, had done wonders. This leaves us 
at the year 300. To this date then we have traced the 
Christians through the history of all Europe, and es- 
pecially through that of the Roman empire ; and we 
find them at this time in large numbers, taking part in 
all the important events of the day, and possessing so 
great an influence as to have one of their number at 
the head of the first and most extensive empire in the 
world. 

6. 300 — 200. We have now arrived at an interesting 
point in our inquiry, and all our attention should be 
summoned to duty. We are drawing near to the time 
at which Christians have fixed the commencement of 
their religion and sect. We are within three hundred 



124 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 



years of the birth of Christ, as stated by them ; arid 
within less than that of the great events which they af- 
firm gave birth to the claims that they set up for the mi- 
raculous powers of their Master, and the divine origin 
of their faith. Every step that we take now brings us 
more feelingly towards the point mentioned, and should 
therefore be taken with caution. We have certainly 
ascertained by an appeal to the history of the world 
during this period, that the Christians have been in ex- 
istence as a distinct people, having a distinct religion, 
more than fifteen hundred years. We have gone back 
from the present time through the records of the great 
nations" of Europe, and other divisions of the earth ; 
through the changes and destinies of the Roman empire, 
up to the year 300, at which time we find these people 
in great numbers, and, with Constantine at their head, 
exerting a decided influence upon the condition of man- 
kind. The questions now arise — How long before this 
date did they exist ? Can we trace them back three 
hundred years farther ? Is the fountain head at the 
point where they have declared it to be, or is it this 
side of that ? These are questions of no small import, 
and let us proceed to the answer with a careful hand, 
7. There were, during these one hundred years, that 
is, from 300 back to 200, no less than twenty-two em- 
perors of Rome, from Diocletian, who was declared 
emperor in 284, upward to Septimius Severus, who held 
the reins at the beginning ol the third century. In ex- 
amining the history of these emperors, we find abundant 
proof of the existence of the Christians in great numbers, 
It is almost impossible to separate their history from 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 125 

that of these people and their religion ; and in some 
cases indeed it is entirely so, inasmuch as the whole 
period of their respective reigns was occupied in oppo- 
sition to Christianity, with the view of destroying it. 
and here we cannot but pay some attention to the testi- 
mony of the celebrated Gibbon, whose well known en- 
mity to the Christian religion will clear him of the 
suspicion of favoring it. 

8. In gathering the materials for his history of the 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, so abundant did 
he find the evidence of the wide spread of this doctrine 
and its followers, that he makes the following statement, 
truly honorable to his integrity. — " There is the strong- 
est reason to believe, that, before the reigns of Diocle- 
tian and Constantine, the faith of Christ had been 
preached in every province, and in all the great cities 
of the empire. The rich provinces, that extend from 
the Euphrates to the Ionian Sea, were the principal 
theatre, on which the apostle of the Gentiles displayed 
his zeal and piety. The seeds of the Gospel, which he 
had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligently cultivated 
by his disciples ; and it should seem, that, during the 
two first centuries, the most considerable body of Chris- 
tians was contained within those limits. Among the 
societies which were instituted in Syria, none were 
more ancient or more illustrious than those of Damas- 
cus, of Berea or Aleppo, and of Antioch. The pro- 
phetic introduction of the Apocalypse has described 
and immortalized the seven churches of Asia — Ephesus, 
Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardes, Laodicea, and 
Philadelphia ; and their colonies were soon diffused 



126 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

over that populous country. In a very early period, the 
islands of Cyprus and Crete, the provinces of Thrace 
and Macedonia, gave a favorable reception to the new 
religion : and Christian republics were soon founded 
in the cities of Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens,"* 

9. Such is the testimony of Mr. Gibbon, and, coming 
from a known enemy of Christianity, and at the same 
time a careful historian, it will be considered as deci- 
sive of the fact, that there were multitudes of Christians 
scattered throughout Europe, part of Asia, and the isl- 
ands of the Mediterranean, before the reign of Diocle- 
tian, or prior to the year 284. And it is not only val- 
uable in regard to this date, for the language is such, 
as to have necessary reference to a much earlier period. 
The truth of Mr. Gibbon's testimony is established in 
the record of no less than four or five distinct persecu- 
tions carried on against the Christians in this century 
by the Roman emperor ; the last of them under Vale- 
rian, or perhaps Diocletian, and the first in the year 
202, under Septimius Severus. To these evidences it 
may be well to add the witness of Lampridius, one of 
the writers of the Augustan history. He lived about 
the year 306, and wrote the life of Alexander Severus, 
whose reign began in the year 222. His testimony 
therefore, belongs to this last date. Of this emperor he 
says,—" He had a mind to build a temple to Christ, and 
to receive him into the number of the deities.' 5 He 
farther says, that he was forbidden to do this by the or- 



* Decline and Fall., c. xv* 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 127 

acles, and adds elsewhere that " he honored Christ in his 
domestic chapel, and showed favor to the Christians." 
He mentions an instance as follows: — " The Christians 
being molested by the vintners of Rome, on account of 
a building where they used to assemble, the emperor 
decided the dispute in favor of the Christians." In ad- 
dition to this, he informs us that the emperor Helioga- 
balus, whose reign commenced in the year 218, " erected 
a temple on Mount Palatine, (in Rome,) and said that 
the religion of the Jews, and Samaritans, and Christians 
must be transported thither, that it might comprehend 
the mysteries of all religions." These testimonies show 
that the Christians were not only numerous at this pe- 
riod, but had acquired great importance ; and also that 
Christ was known as the author of their religion, and 
was so much honored by the Roman emperor, as to 
have been thought worthy of a place among the deities. 
To bring us to the year 200, we would merely add that 
Spartian, another Roman historian, makes mention at 
this date of a decree forbidding the people to become 
Christians. 

10. 200 — 100. In the space here named, the empire 
was ruled by seven different emperors, some of whom 
were noted, as Marcus Antoninus, the philosopher, Adri- 
an, and Trajan. Under two of these there were perse- 
cutions ; the last in the year 118, which of course proves 
that the Christians were found in great numbers at this 
date. But to place this beyond question, the reader 
will peimit us to appeal once more to Mr. Gibbon, who 
would certainly say no more in this respect than the 
voice of history compelled him to say. He speaks of 



128 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



the complaints of the heathen at this age in consequence 
of the great increase of the Christians, and adds, — 
" From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher who had 
studied mankind, and describes their manners in the 
most lively colors, we may learn that under the reign 
of Commodus, his native country of Pontus was filled 
with Epicureans and Christians." The reign of Com- 
modus began in the year 180, and continued to the year 
193. With the aid then, of Mr. Gibbon and Lucian, 
both enemies of the Christian faith, w-e are carried back 
to the year 180, at which date we meet with vast num- 
bers of Christians. As Lucian' s testimony is impor- 
tant we shall quote it separately. He speaks of one 
Peregrinus, who had passed himself off for a Christian, 
and says that " he learned the wonderful doctrines of 
the Christians by conversing with their priests and 
Scribes near Palestine." Again, he says, " These 
Christians still worship that great man who was cruci- 
fied in Palestine, because he introduced into the world 
this new religion." This evidence of the hostile Lueian 
establishes two very important points — 1. The existence 
of great numbers of Christians in Pontus, or Asia Mi- 
nor. 2. That the author of their religion was a " great 
man, and was crucified in Palestine." 

11. If we go back to the year 161, we shall meet 
with the philosophical emperor Marcus Antoninus. In 
his book of "Meditations," he thus exclaims : — " What a 
soul is that which is prepared, even now presently, if 
needful, to be separated from the body, whether it be 
to be extinguished or to be dispersed, or to subsist still. 
But this readiness must proceed from a well-weighed 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 129 



judgment, not from mere obstinacy like the Christians. 57 
This proves the existence of Christians at this date, and 
farther shows that they were persecuted, as will be seen 
in the mention of their fortitude in death, though Anto- 
ninus is pleased to call it obstinacy. From this empe- 
ror, we go up to Adrian, who reigned between the 
years 138 and 118. He visited Egypt, and during his 
stay there, he wrote the following letter to Servianus, 
the husband of his sister : — " Adrian Augustus, to the 
consul Servianus, wisheth health. I have found Egypt, 
my dear Servianus, which you commended to me, all 
over fickle, and inconstant, and continually shaken by 
the slightest reports of fame. The worshippers of 
Serapis are Christians, and they are devoted to Serapis, 
who call themselves Christ's bishops. There is no 
ruler of the Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no pres- 
byter of the Christians, no mathematician, no soothsay- 
er, no anointer, who does not worship Serapis. The 
patriarch himself, if he should come to Egypt, w 7 ould 
be required by some to worship Serapis, by others, 
Christ. A seditious and turbulent sort of men. How- 
ever, the city is rich and populous. Nor are any 
idle ; some are employed in making glass, others paper, 
others in weaving linen. They have one God ; him 
the Christians, him the Jews, him all the Gentile peo- 
ple worship."* It will be seen that there is some con- 
fusion in the statement of Adrian respecting the wor- 



* " Illi qui Serapin colunt, Christiani, sunt, et devoti sunt Serapi, qui s© 
Christi episcopos dicunt." — et seq. Flavius Vopiscus, in vita SaturninL 
quoted by Montesquieu in Pol. des, Rom. dans la ReL 



130 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

ship of Serapis, one of the Egyptian deities, by the 
Christians ; but with this we are not concerned at 
present. We only want the testimony of Adrian to the 
existence of Christians at the time this letter was writ- 
ten, which was in 134, the year of the consulship of 
Servianus. This witness, as the reader will perceive, 
carries us to within an hundred years of the death of 
Christ. Beside the above document, we have a letter 
written to Adrian by Serenius Granianus, in which he 
comments with some freedom upon the injustice and 
absolute cruelty of putting the Christians to death when 
they had been guilty of no crime, merely to gratify the 
clamors of the people. This was written about the 
year 126, and, in connection with other causes, was fol- 
lowed by a rescript from the emperor somewhat favor- 
able to the Christians. 

12. The next remove carries us up to the year 107, 
in which the celebrated letter of the younger Pliny was 
written. Pliny had been appointed under Trajan, pro- 
consul of Bithynia, a province of the Roman empire? 
bordering on the Black sea. The death of great num- 
bers of Christians in consequence of former edicts, 
alarmed the humane governor, and he accordingly 
wrote to the emperor for advice. He says that he had 
questioned, threatened, and punished some; a part of 
whom denied they were Christians, and a part recant- 
ed, and offered incense before Trajan's statue ; but, he 
adds, " there is no forcing those who are really Chris- 
tians into any of these compliances." " Others," he 
continues, " owned they had been of that number for- 
merly, but had now (some above three, others more, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 131 

and a few above twenty years ago) renounced that er- 
ror." " It appears to be a matter highly deserving 
your consideration; more especially as great numbers 
must be involved in the danger of these prosecutions, 
which have already extended, and are still likely to ex- 
tend, to persons of all ranks and ages, and even of both 
sexes. In fact, this contagious superstition is not con- 
fined to the cities only, but has spread its infection 
among the neighboring villages and country. Never- 
theless, it still seems possible to restrain its progress. 
The temples, at least, which were once almost desert- 
ed, begin now to be frequented ; and the sacred solemni- 
ties, after a long intermission, are revived ; to which I 
must add, there is again also a general demand for the 
victims, which for some time past had met with but 
few purchasers." * This letter of Pliny proves what 
immense numbers of Christians were found in Bithynia 
at the time it was written, seventy-five years after the 
period at which Christ is said to have been crucified! 
This surely shows that they must have begun to exist 
some time prior to this date ; and it is proved also from 
the expressions, " the temples were once almost desert- 
ed" the revival of the " sacred solemnities after a long 
intermission. 11 It is evident that they must have exert- 
ed a very wide and decided inflaence, to have caused such 
a general desertion of the heathen temples. This influ- 
ence could not have been acquired in a day, or in a year J 
neither could the " contagious superstition " have spread 
through cities, towns, and villages, infecting all ranks 



* Melmoth's Pliny, lib. x. Letter 97. 



132 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



and ages, in this brief space. These circumstances 
prove that it must have had its rise at least, several 
years before this date ; and were we destitute of earlier 
authority, we might, justified by the laws of evidence, 
throw it back to the point at which Christians place it. 
But we are not reduced to this course. There is proof 
in the letter itself of the existence of Christians twenty 
years previous, for Pliny states that some whom he ex- 
amined owned that they had been of this number above 
twenty years prior to that. This carries us to the year 
87, or 54 years after the death of Christ. But we have 
other witnesses to bring forward. 

13. 100—33, the date at which Christians fix the 
death of Christ. Within the period here named there 
were not less than eleven emperors, several of whom 
are well known as being of a most depraved and aban- 
doned character. With regard to the existence of 
Christians at this time, their origin and name, there is 
abundant and unquestionable evidence. We say un- 
questionable, because it comes from the highest author- 
ity, from historians who were themselves strongly 
prejudiced against Christians, and whose testimony is 
therefore free from all suspicion. It is of the same 
class indeed with that of Pliny, and the other heathen 
witnesses who have been cited. Tacitus, the celebrated 
Roman historian, who was born about fifteen years after 
the crucifixion of Christ, gives us an account of the great 
fire at Rome. This happened in the tenth year of Nero, 
and as his reign began in 54, it brings the events of 
which Tacitus speaks to the year 64, about 30 years from 
the erucifixtion. It was reported, he informs us, that Ne- 
ro had himself set the city on fire, and, to avoid the odium, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 133 



charged it upon the Christians. He states it thus : — - 
" Nero procured others to be accused, and inflicted the 
severest punishments upon those people who were held 
in abhorrence for their crimes, and were commonly 
known by the name of Christians. They had their 
name from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was 
put to death by the procurator, Pontius Pilate.* This 
pernicious superstition, though repressed for a time, 
broke forth again, and spread itself not only through 
Judea, the source of the evil, but even through the 
city, (Rome) whither, from every quarter, flow all 
things detestable and shameful, and find a ready re- 
ception. At first, indeed, only those who confessed 
were seized ; but afterward, by their discovery, a great 
multitude were condemned, not so much for the crime 
of burning the city, as for their hatred of mankind." f 
14. To the preceding we have to add the testimony 
of Suetonius, who wrote the lives of the first twelve 
emperors of Rome. In the life of Nero* he says, 
" The Christians were also punished, a race of men of 
a new and mischievous superstition." \ In relation to 



* " Vulgus Christianos appelabat. Auctor nominis ejus Christus, Ti- 
berio imperitante, per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus 
erat." 

| Tacitus, Annal. lib. xv. c. 44. 

X Suetonius, in Nerone,c. xvi. We have omitted the passage in the life of 
Claudius, because we have some doubts whether Suetonius refers to Jesus 
Christ. The passage is this — " He expelled from Rome the Jews who were 
continually creating tumults, Chrestus being their leader." c. xxv. Of this a 
celebrated critic says — " Christum Dominum nostrum, hie fuisse intel!ectum, 
adhuc mihi persuadere non possum." Another says — " Non Jesu Christo, sed 
Judaeo quodam Chresto impulsore." Gesselius, Tom. i. Addenda p. 9. Taciti 
Opera, Tom. ii. p. 76. Boston, 1817. A. Clarke, Acts xviii. 2. 



134 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



the event recorded in these passages, "Mr. Gibbon ob- 
serves, — " The most sceptical criticism is obliged to re- 
spect the truth of this extraordinary fact, and the integri- 
ty of this celebrated passage of Tacitus.* The former 
is confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius, 
who mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted 
upon the Christians. The latter may be proved by the 
consent of the most ancient manuscripts ; by the inimi- 
table character of Tacitus ; by his reputation, which 
guarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud ; 
and by the purport of his narration." Here, then, with 
the approbation of Mr. Gibbon, we go back to the year 
64, thirty years after the death of Christ, at which time 
are found great bodies of Christians, not only through- 
out Judea, but at Rome. To the testimony brought 
forward here, we must give attention in several impor- 
tant particulars. It will at once be seen that it estab- 
lishes beyond all dispute the declaration of the Chris- 
tians with' which this section commenced — that they 
owe their origin, name, and religion, to one Jesus 
Christ, who lived and taught in Judea, and was there 
put to death eighteen hundred years ago. Tacitus af- 
firms, 1. That there were great multitudes of Chris- 
tians at Rome in the year 64. Of course, if they exist- 
ed in such numbers then, they must have had an origin 
some time prior to this. But we are not left to infer- 
ences ; for Tacitus states, 2. That they had "their name 
from Christ," and 3. That this Christ was put to 
death in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pon- 



* Decline and Fall, c. xvi, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



135 



tius Pilate. And lastly, the truth of these facts is en- 
dorsed by Suetonius, and admitted by Mr. Gibbon. 

15. The exactness of this account is remarkable. Tac- 
itus tells us that Christ was crucified under the procu- 
ratorship of Pilate. Pilate, according to Josephus, 
was recalled to Rome for mal-administration ; he set 
out immediately, but Tiberius died while he was on 
his way.* Now Tiberius died on the 16th of March, 
of the year 37, and of course Pilate must have put 
Christ to death previous to this, because his procurator- 
ship ceased before this date. If we here take into the 
account the series of tumults, as mentioned by Josephus, 
which resulted in the embassy of the Samaritan senate 
to Vitellius, the time occupied in the debates of the 
senate, the journey of the ambassador to Syria, the 
hearing- of the complaint, and the return of Marcellus 
with orders for Pilate — we shall find that, at least, it 
will be necessary to go back one or two years farther, 
which would leave us at the year 35. This brings us 
within two years of the date named by Christians, and 
sufficiently near to prove the truth of their statement as 
named above. 

16. We have now arrived at an interesting stage in our 
investigation. It has been proved, by an appeal to the 
pages of acknowledged history, that Christianity began 
its existence in the reign of Tiberius, emperor of Rome, 
more than eighteen centuries ago. We have followed 
the Christians from our own time upward through all 
the changes of empires to that date; we have in every 
step of our progress found their history and name in- 
woven with those of the greatest nations of the earth. 



* Josephus, Ant. lib. xviii. c. 4. § 2. 



136 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



so that it is impossible to separate the one from the 
other. There is no place to stop this side of Tiberius; 
for whenever we do this, we deny all preceding history. 
If any one question this, we ask him to place his finger 
on that point in the present era, beyond which he as- 
serts there were no Christians — we ask him to desig- 
nate the page, or name the year in which Christianity 
commenced its being. Let this be attempted and it will 
be found that it has insuperable difficulties ; that, fix 
where we will short of Tiberius, we are involved in a 
war of extermination with the very sources of human 
knowledge. Should we affirm that no Christians were 
found earlier than the year 500, then must we deny the 
history of the Roman emperors and empire prior to 
this, for they are so connected, with each other, that to 
deny one is to deny both. If we throw out that part of 
the history which relates to the Christians, we throw 
out more than half the history of the empire, yea, near- 
ly all ; for there would be innumerable chasms which 
never could be filled but by the introduction of the 
Christians. Should we place their origin at the year 
300, or even 200, and affirm that they had no exist- 
ence before this ; then we write falsehood upon the 
foreheads of Marcus Antoninus, Adrian, Pliny, and oth- 
ers : and if we place it at 100 or at : 50, we must reject 
what all the world have received, the well-known his- 
tories of Tacitus and Suetonius, and the testimony of 
Lucian. We are compelled, therefore, according to all 
the rules and laws of historical evidence, to admit the 
truth of the Christian statement, that they have been 
in existence, as a distinct sect, more than eighteen 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 137 

hundred years, having a distinct religion and name de- 
rived from Jesus Christ, who lived and taught in Judea, 
and was there put to death by Pontius Pilate the procu- 
rator. 

17. Our next step will be to inquire into the genuine- 
ness of the Christian histories ; or, in other words, to 
ascertain whether the different books of the New Testa- 
ment were written by those whose names they bear, 
and at the time affirmed by Christians. 



10 



CHAPTER VI. 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE TRUTH OF THE 
CHRISTIAN HISTORY. 

SECTION I. 

WERE THE BOOKS WHICH COMPOSE THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITTEN 
BY THE DISCIPLES OF^ CHRIST 1 ARGUMENT FROM CIRCUMSTANCES. 

1. In the last section it was proved that Christians 
had existed as a distinct people from the commencement 
of the present era, and that they derived their name and 
faith from Jesus Christ who lived at the time of said 
commencement. It is not our object here to prove 
that Christ wrought miracles, or was endowed with su- 
pernatural powers — with this question we are not now 
concerned. Whether it be true or not, it is certain 
from the evidence already advanced, that he possessed 
sufficient influence, acquired by his teachings and 
works, to establish a new religion, a religion which has 
gone on from that period to the present steadily increas- 
ing, until it has embraced in its profession more than 
two hundred millions of the most enlightened portion 
of the human race. This is a fact which admits of no 
question, and it is enough for the object in view in this 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 139 

section. If then Jesus Christ taught such important 
doctrines, and performed such works, as caused him to 
be received by great numbers in that age as a divine 
person, is it not reasonable to suppose that those men 
who had been with him, and had heard and seen all 
things said and done by him, — is it not most reasonable 
to suppose that they would have written some account 
of his life and actions for the benefit of those who had 
not enjoyed the privilege of hearing and seeing ? Does 
not this seem the most natural thing in the world 1 Is 
it not a conclusion justified by the circumstances ? Let 
us take an example in the way of illustration. 

2. The name of Napoleon Bonaparte is familiar to eve- 
ry one. He was a remarkable man, and the fame and in- 
fluence he acquired by his wonderful deeds were un- 
equalled by those of any conqueror who preceded him. 
He had many followers in the path of glory and pow* 
er; many who were entirely devoted to him, and who 
began with him, and with him went through all his 
victories and triumphs, through all his struggles, and 
difficulties, and dangers, even unto the end. They 
were the witnesses and sharers in all his prosperity and 
adversity, and at all times they had a confidence in him 
equalled only by their unbounded admiration and af- 
fection for him. Now, if under these circumstances 
these men had never said, had never written any thing 
concerning Napoleon, if they had given to the world 
no account or history of his life and astonishing ex- 
ploits, should we not have been very much surprised ? 
Would not every one have regarded their conduct as 
strange and altogether unaccountable ? Most certainly 



140 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

this would have been the case. Indeed, the world 
would not have endured this; those who had heard of 
the fame, and had admired the genius of Napoleon, 
would have made repeated and urgent calls upon these 
associates of the great man to give them some history of 
him, some account of his wonderful deeds. This is on 
the supposition of their silence j but if we reflect a mo- 
ment, we shall see that these men would not of them- 
selves have been silent. Their very love for their lead- 
er, their admiration of his character and deeds, and the 
wish that others should know and admire, would prompt 
them to write his history for the perusal of mankind. 
This is precisely what we should expect from them, 
and this is precisely what we have, as is seen in the 
histories and biographies of Bourienne, Les Cases, &c. 

3. We have now only to apply this to the case in 
question, and we shall at once see its force. Jesus 
Christ had, by his teachings and doings, acquired a very 
great influence over the minds of numbers who lived at 
that age, and were witnesses of his actions, and hearers 
of his doctrines. Many became strongly attached to 
him, as might have been expected : they followed him 
from place to place, were with him from the beginning 
to the end of his eventful life. If, as we have seen in 
the section before this, multitudes in after years, who 
had not been witnesses of his deeds, who had not seen 
or heard him, but had only received the account of his 
doctrines and of the things which he had done, from 
others ; if, we repeat, these were willing to suffer the 
most cruel persecutions rather than be unfaithful to 
him, how much stronger must have been the admira- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 141 

tion, the affection, and fidelity of those who were his 
immediate companions throughout his mission, and 
were eye and ear witnesses of all his works and teach- 
ings ! And is it possible, then, that they would have 
failed to commit them to the keeping of records ? Can 
we believe that they would have written no history of 
the life and acts of him whom they loved so fervently ? 
And when they saw the rapidly increasing number of 
those who believed and embraced the religion of their 
Master, would they not see also the absolute necessity 
of this ? And indeed would not the believers require 
it of them, by the same rule that the world would have 
required of Napoleon's companions a history, had they 
failed to furnish it % We have already seen, from the 
testimony of Tacitus, that within thirty years after the 
death of Christ his followers had increased to such a de- 
gree, that they had not only spread all over Judea, but 
even through Rome itself. Now, would not these dis- 
tant and widely scattered believers require some authen- 
tic account of him whose religion they professed, and 
whose character they so much admired? Certainly 
this want must have existed, and the demand would 
have been made for a history of this kind direct from 
the hands of those who had been with him, who had - 
seen him with their own eyes, and with their own ears 
had heard him. Nothing less than this would have satis- 
fied them. Aside from the truth or falsehood, then, of the 
present gospels, we ask, would it not have been surpris- 
ing had these immediate disciples given no such record 
or history 1 Let it be repeated that here we have noth- 
ing to do with the genuineness or authenticity of the 



142 CHRISTIANIY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

evangelical histories as now received ; we only put it 
upon the ground of rational probability, and on this 
ground we leave it with any man, be he ever so scep- 
tical, to decide whether under these circumstances it 
would not be most singular had the companions of Je- 
sus Christ left no account of his life and actions. And 
we do verily believe that every candid person will read- 
ily admit that it is a fair conclusion, that there should 
be some such history as this, that it is exactly what we 
should most naturally expect, and what experience war- 
rants us in expecting, as the case of Napoleon, already 
cited, and others, testify. 

4. But it will probably be said here, that, admitting 
the companions or immediate disciples of Christ may 
have written a history of the character mentioned, 
what evidence have we that our present gospels are 
those histories ? We answer, the same ^evidence we 
have that the iEneid is the work of Virgil, or the Iliad 
of Homer, or Paradise Lost of Milton ; the same evidence 
we have that the Orations of Cicero, and the Histories 
of Tacitus, were the productions of these men, or that the 
reputed works of Martin Luther were really written by 
him. We may go farther ; we have evidence in favor 
of the genuineness of the four gospels, in the ratio of 
ten to one, when compared with that in favor of the 
JEneid of Virgil, the Histories of Tacitus, or any other 
ancient work. Where one proof can be offered to show 
that the Roman Histories were really written by Taci- 
tus, we can offer ten, and indeed twenty, in proof that 
the Gospel Histories were written by those whose names 
they bear. And we are willing to try them by this 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 143 



rule; we ask no favors in their behalf; we are perfectly 
satisfied to place them on the ground with any other 
ancient production, and wish them only to be tried in 
the same manner, and established by the same kind and 
quantity of evidence. We claim nothing for them on 
the score of their sacredness ; their genuineness and 
authenticity are entirely a matter of historical inquiry, 
to be decided by historical authority, and we are ready 
to subject them to the same ordeal that we would any 
other works of equal antiquity. But, this done, we do 
claim, and certainly have a just right to claim, if the ev- 
idence be in their favor, if the voice of history go with 
them, that they shall be received for the same reason 
that we receive the works of Cicero, Tacitus, and He- 
rodotus. 



SECTION II. 



DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 

1. It will not of course be necessary to enter into a 
lengthy argument, or to resort to quotations, to prove 
that the New Testament histories were in existence, and 
were ascribed to the authors whose names they bear, as 
early as the year 1000, because no man who has read 
at all will dispute this. We have already shown that 
the Christians took their rise at the commencement of 
the present era, and it must of necessity be seen that 
they would not continue through this long period with- 
out some kind of books ; and this is confirmed by refer- 
ence to the writings of that age in all parts of the world, 
which abundantly prove that the books in question 
were, at that time, generally known and read. We 
give the following notices, therefore, rather to keep up 
a continued chain of evidence from the present time to 
that of the Apostles, than because we think it is required. 

2. 1836—1600. About the year 1000, our present 
English Translation of the Scriptures was made. Pre- 
vious to this, Luther made his German translation. 
In the year 1 300 Lyra wrote short comments upon the 
whole Bible. In the year 1200 Clara, a Dominican 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 145 

monk, wrote a commentary upon the whole Bible. 
Thomas Aquinas also compiled in this century a Ca- 
tena on the four Gospels, that is, notes collected from 
upwards of eighty Greek and Latin fathers. In the 
early part of the twelfth century Zigabenus, of Con- 
stantinople, wrote commentaries on different parts of the 
Bible, and particularly upon the four gospels. In the 
eleventh century Anselm prepared notes or glosses 
upon the Bible ; and the well-known Theophylact 
of Bulgaria, wrote Scholia on the principal books of 
Scripture, among which were the Gospels, Acts, and 
Paul's Epistles. This brings us to the year 1000. 

3. 1000 — 600. In the tenth century OEcumenius 
wrote commentaries on the book of Acts, and on all the 
Epistles. In the ninth century lived Strabus, who 
wrote commentaries upon the whole Bible, or perhaps 
collected them from those who had written before him, 
About the year 800 Maurus flourished ; he was a most 
voluminous writer, and has left, beside numerous com- 
ments, a glossary upon the whole Bible. In the eighth 
century, about 780, lived the venerable Bede, who col- 
lected from the writings of the fathers, notes on most of 
the New Testament. If we go back to the beginning 
of the seventh century, we find the Christian history 
acknowledged by the famous Mahomet, who recog- 
nises Jesus Christ as a prophet, and affirms that he 
wrought miracles, was persecuted, condemned, &c. 
Beside this, he has borrowed largely from the New 
Testament, not only in doctrines and facts, but in words. 
Bush has adduced twenty passages from the Koran, 
which are taken almost verbatim from the Christian 



146 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

Scriptures. More than this, he has sometimes borrow- 
ed, perhaps we might say extracted, whole relations, as 
in the case of John and Jesus, the account of whose 
birth is taken with very little alteration from the first 
chapter of Luke.* At this date, then, 600, the books of 
the New Testament must have been in existence ; oth- 
erwise, Mahomet could not have copied from them. 

4. 600 — 400. In the sixth centuiy there lived a 
great number of ecclesiastical writers, both Greek and 
Latin, for an account of whom, and to avoid prolixity, 
the reader is referred to Mosheim, We give the 
names only of Procopius, of Gaza, who wrote an ex- 
position of several books of Scripture; Arator, who 
translated the book of Acts into Latin verse ; Philoxe- 
nus, the Syrian, who procured the New Testament to 
be translated into his own language ; and Victor, of 
Capua, who collected notes on the four Gospels, which 
received the name of Victor's ehain. In the fifth cen- 
tury also, there flourished many eminent writers, who 
have treated of the books of the New Testament. We 
shall mention one only, the celebrated Augustine. 
He was a laborious writer, and has left treatises upon 
Che various books of the Old and New Testaments. 
He carries us up to the year 400. From this date we 
shall go upward to the time of the disciples and Apos- 
tles more closely, or with shorter intervals ; so that the 
nearer we approximate to the date of the Christian 
Scriptures, the stronger and more compact may be the 
chain of evidence. 



* See Bush's Life cf Mahomet, pp. 33—36. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 147 



5. 400 — 300.* Jerome was born about the year 



the most learned of the Latin fathers. He lived a long 
time in Palestine, for the express purpose of acquiring 
all the knowledge to be had concerning the books of 
the New Testament.! As the result of his researches 
he brought out several large works on the various sub- 
jects connected with them, and in these he notices all 
the books which we have at the present day. He at- 
tributes the four Gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, and mentions the Acts of the Apostles as another 
work of Luke. He says that Paul wrote Epistles to 
seven different churches, and these churches are the 
same with those whose titles we find in the present 



* To avoid the inconvenience of constant reference, it may be well to state 
here, once for all, that the materials, from which the remainder of this section 
is made up, have been drawn, chiefly, of course, from Lardner's works, the 
general magazine to which all resort. Edit. 8vo. London, 1834. Also Home, 
vol. i. Paley's Evidences, Part I. c. ix. Grotius de Veritate, lib. iii. Mo- 
sheim'sEcc. History, cent. i. ii. iii. iv. Townley's Introduction to Lit. Hist, 
of the Bible, An old work, containing much matter of information, the 
title-page of which runs thus — " Historia Rerum Memorabilium in orbe gesta- 
rum, ab Anno Mundi usque ad Annum Christi MCXXV. Amsteledami, 
1661." 2 vols. 4to. The author is one Timannus Gesselius. 

f " Jerome was the most eminent Biblical scholar of the fourth century. 
His father, Eusebius, who was a Christian, sent him to finish his education at 
Rome. In this city he perfected his knowledge of the Latin and Greek 
tongues, his native dialect being the Illyrican. Soon after his ordination he 
went into Palestine, and visited the principal holy places situated in different 
parts of that country, but made Bethlehem his usual place of residence. He had 
recourse to the ablest Jewish doctors, to inform himself of all the particulars 
relating to all the remarkable places mentioned in sacred history." He died in 
Palestine at the age of 90, A.D. 420. Townley's Intro, p, 49, 




148 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

Epistles of Paul. He farther states that Paul wrote to 
Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The catholic Epistles 
as they are termed, he ascribes to Peter, James, John, 
and Jude, whom he calls Apostles. The Epistle to 
the Hebrews, he himself believes, was written by Paul, 
but adds, that most of the Latin Church were of a dif- 
ferent opinion. In addition to these testimonies, Je- 
rome was employed by the Bishop of Rome upon the 
Latin translation of the Scriptures, known by the name 
of the Vulgate Version, which is received to this day 
as the standard of the Catholic Church, The Gospels 
were completed in the year 384, and the other books 
followed in order. 

6. We mention next Athanasius, of Alexandria, 

■ 

whose testimony may be placed at about 340. He has 
given a catalogue of the books of the Old and New Tes- 
taments. " The books of the New Testament," says 
he, " are these : The four Gospels, according to Mat- 
thew, according to Mark, according to Luke, according 
to John. Then after them the Acts of the Apostles, 
and the seven Epistles of the apostles called catholic : of 
James one, of Peter two, of John three, and after them 
of Jude one. Beside these there are fourteen epistles 
of the apostle Paul. The first to the Romans, then 
two to the Corinthians, after them that to the Galatians, 
the next to the Ephesians, then to the Philippians, to 
the Colossians, after them two to the Thessalonians, 
and the epistle to the Hebrews; then two to Timothy, 
to Titus one, the last to Philemon : and again, the Rev- 
elation of John." This list, it will be seen, agrees with 
our present books of the NeAv Testament. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



149 



7. Passing over the other ecclesiastical writers of 
this century, of whom there were more than fifty, we 
come to the famed Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea in 
Palestine, who flourished about the year 315. He was 
a man of great reading, versed in all the branches of 
the literature of that age, and justly celebrated for his 
profound knowledge of ecclesiastical history. He wrote 
in Greek a careful history of Christianity from its com- 
mencement to his own time, and - laboriously examined 
all the Christian writings which preceded him, for the 
purpose of gathering the materials for his great work. 
Pie directed his researches particularly to the ascer- 
taining what writings had been received as the genuine 
productions of the immediate disciples and apostles of 
Christ; and to this inquiry has devoted four distinct 
chapters in one of his books. He divides the books of 
the New Testament into two classes, as the result of 
his investigations, — 1. Those which were universally 
received from the beginning as the genuine works of 
the persons whose names they bear. These are, The 
four Gospels — The Acts of the Apostles — The Epis- 
tles of Paul— The first Epistle of John— The first 
Epistle of Peter. 2. Those which had not received 
universal assent. These are, The Epistle of James — 
The Epistle of Jude — The second Epistle of Peter— 
The second and third Epistles of John — The Revela- 
tion. Of these last, he says, it was doubted by some 
only whether they were really the productions of the 
Apostles, but the majority received them. This valua- 
ble testimony of Eusebius proves not only that all the 
books of the New Testament were in existence when 



150 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

he wrote, which was little more than two hundred years 
after the time of their date, as declared by Christians, 
but that they were in existence a long period anterior 
to this ; because his evidence is the result of inquiries 
which he carried back to the very days of the Apos- 
tles. So that, in fact, this testimony of the great histo- 
rian is not to be confined to his own day ; it is more 
ancient than this, it carries us up to the very point in 
question. We might then with all propriety stop here, 
and consider our position established, until the author* 
ity of Eusebius' history is overthrown ; and were we to 
wait till this is done, we should wait forever. But we 
do not wish to silence the unbeliever, we would rather 
convince him, and we will therefore go on our journey 
upward, furnishing him with line upon line of increas- 
ing proof.* 

8. 300—250. If we go back fifteen years from Euse- 
bius to the first date here named, we shall find labored 
vindications of Christianity. In these works, composed 



* The reader may be gratified to know that in this century, the fourth, 
there were made no less than ten distinct catalogues of the Books of the New 
Testament, six of which agree exactly with our present canon, containing ev- 
ery book that we now have. One was by the third council of Carthage in the 
year 397, — one by Augustine, a bishop of Africa, in 394, — one by Jerome, in 
392,— one by Rufinus, in 390, — one by Epiphanius, in 370, — and the last by 
Athanasius, already noticed, in 340. The remaining four agree with our li9t 
with the single exception of the book of Revelation. These catalogues of 
course prove, independently of other testimony, the existence of all the books 
of the New Testament as early as the given dates. It. may be well to notice the 
distance frcm each other of the places at which these catalogues were made- 
one at Carthage in Africa, one at Jerusalem in Judea, one at Laodicea in Asia, 
one at Constantinople, in Europe, &c. Here are, at least, three different quar- 
ters of the globe, all bearing the same witness. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 151 

by Arnobius and Lactantius, the authors avoid di- 
rect quotations from the Scriptures, because, as one of 
them states, they were writing to heathen, who knew 
nothing about them. Their object was to give those to 
whom they wrote, a general outline of the Christian 
history, in doing which they draw their accounts, with- 
out giving names, from the Gospels, with which they 
perfectly correspond. In the year 294, lived Pamphi- 
lus, Presbyter of Csesarea. He was remarkable for 
his great love of the Scriptures, and for his encourage- 
ment of learning and piety. He not only lent copies of 
the Scriptures to be read, but gave as presents to per- 
sons of known zeal, manuscripts transcribed with the 
greatest accuracy by his own hand. He established a 
library of several thousand volumes at Csesarea, to be 
loaned out for reading. And it is a remarkable fact that 
there is a very ancient manuscript of Paul's Epistles, 
preserved in the French king's library, with the fol- 
lowing note : " This book was compared with the copy 
in the library at Csesarea, in the hand-writing of St* 
Pamphilus." Here we have proof of the existence of 
all the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. From this we 
may go to Victorin, bishop of Pettaw, in Germany, 
who lived about the year 290, and whose testimony is 
the more valuable as he was at a great distance from 
the others. He acknowledges the existence of the 
Gospel histories, having written expositions of various 
portions of them. In his commentary upon Revelation, 
when he comes to the following passage — " The first 
beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, 
and the third beast had a face like a man* and the fourth 



152 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

beast was like a flying eagle," iv. 7, he explains it by 
reference to the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John, of which he says these beasts were figures. 
We have nothing to do with his interpretation ; but this 
reference shows that the Gospels were then written, and 
were in Germany. He also cites the Acts of the Apos- 
tles in his works, which proves the same thing with 
regard to this book. Besides Victorin, there were 
many other writers up to the year 250, whose works 
abound with quotations from, or reference to, the Gos- 
pel histories, and whose testimonies are given at length 
by Dr. Lardner. We shall content ourselves, with nam- 
ing some of them, with their dates, and places of residence 
— Methodius, Lycia, 290 — Theognostus, 282 — Ana- 
tolius, Laodicea, 270 — Dionysius, Rome, 259 — No- 
vatus, Rome, 251. To these we may add Cyprian, 
bishop of Carthage in Africa, who flourished about the 
year 250. " The Church," says he, " is watered like 
Paradise, by four rivers, that is, by four Gospels." He 
mentions the Acts of the Apostles repeatedly by name ; 
and indeed his writings are literally filled with quota- 
tions from Scripture, proving the existence thereof be- 
yond all question. 

9. 250—200. Gregory, of New- Caes area, and Dio- 
nysius, of Alexandria, first present themselves within 
this period, and the quotations from the Gospel histo- 
ries in their works are very numerous ; but as they 
immediately followed the famous Origen, we pass them 
with this notice, and come to him. Origen flourished 
about the year 230, and was unquestionably one of the 
most remarkable men that ever lived. He is known 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 153 

all over the civilized world for his profound erudition* 
his devoted study of the Scriptures, and his gigantic 
labors in connection therewith. * His writings show 
the existence of all the books of the New Testament, in 
his day, the same as we have them now. In speaking 
of the histories of the Evangelists, he says, " The four 
gospels are received without dispute by the whole 
church of God under heaven;" and he then proceeds 
to give an account of their respective authors, attributing 
them, as do Christians of the present age, to Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John. With regard to Luke he says, 
" he once more sounds the trumpet, relating the Acts of 
the Apostles." This is valuable testimony, because it 
is only about one hundred and thirty years from the 
Apostle John. Again, he says of the books of the New 
Testament, " They are not private books, or such as are 
read by a few only, and those studious persons, but 
they are books read by every body." This shows that 
they were generally known by friends and foes, for this 
was said in reply to one who had opposed Christianity. 
To produce all the quotations from Origen's works, in 
which he mentions or bears testimony to the Scriptures, 
or to repeat all his quotations from them, would be to 
transcribe nearly in full the Old and New Testaments. 
"If we had all his works remaining," says Dr Mill, 
** we should have before us almost the whole text of the 



* See notices of him in Mosheim, cent. iii. P. II. c. 2. Home, vol. i. p. 80» 
ii. pp. 171,742. Ancient Hist, of Universalism, c. iv. Townley's Bible Hist 
pp. 53—56. Lardoer's Credibility, Part II. c. xxxviii. where upwards of an 
hundred pages are devoted to an account of his writings, and to lengthy ex- 
tracts from them. 

11 



154 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



Bible." From Origen to the year 200, there were sev- 
eral writers, among whom were Hippolytus, the frag- 
ments of whose works contain an abstract of the whole 
Gospel history ; Julius Africanus, who wrote upon 
the genealogy of Christ, as given by Matthew and 
Luke ; Ammo ni us, who composed a Harmony of the 
four Gospels, in which he of course quoted the most of 
their contents ; and Caius, who has made quotations from 
all the Epistles of Paul, with the exception of that to the 
Hebrews. These, and many other writers,are crowded 
into the short space of thirty years. Thus far then, to 
the year 200, we are brought, not only with the Gospel 
histories, but with all the books of the New Testament, 
and at this point there is a mountain of evidence from 
a multitude of writers in their support. 

10. 200 — 150. In entering the second century, we 
meet first with Tertullian, a Latin father of consid- 
erable note. He was born in the year 160, and wrote 
about 190, and from that to 220. He quotes from all 
the books of the New Testament, except the Epistle of 
James, the second of Peter, and the second and third of 
John. He distinguishes Matthew and John as Apos- 
tles ; and Mark and Luke as apostolical men, — " Among 
the apostles, John and Matthew teach us the faith; 
among apostolical men, Luke and Mark refresh it." He 
mentions also that their writings w r ere received and 
acknowledged by the Christian churches from the 
commencement. " By all the apostolical churches and 
by all who fellowship with them is the Gospel of Luke 
received; and the same authority supports the other Gos- 
pels which we have from them ; I mean John's and Mat- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY* 155 



thew's ; although that likewise which Mark published 
may be said to be Peter's, whose interpreter Mark was. 5 ' 
This is in allusion to the fact that Mark was the com- 
panion of Peter, and probably wrote under his direction. 

1 1. Such is a part of the testimony of Tertullian, given 
about 150 years from the time the books are said to have 
been w T ritten. Its value and importance are readily 
seen. He who lived so near the days of the Apostles, 
acknowledges the Gospel histories, and ascribes them 
to the same authors whose names they bear to this 
hour. And not only this, he declares that they existed 
long previous to this, and were received by the very 
churches founded by the disciples, and names those of 
Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Ephesus, 
established by Paul, that of Rome, by Peter and Paul, 
and those gathered by John. How irresistible then is 
this testimony, and how plainly does it show us the no- 
toriety, and the wide circulation of these Gospels in 
Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. The time that it would 
take to accomplish this distant distribution, and to ena- 
ble Tertullian to learn the opinions of these different 
churches, almost necessarily carries us up to the Apos- 
tles. 

12. Our author likewise speaks of the coincidences 
between the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's Epistles, 
which gave birth to that admirable work of Paley, the 
Horse Paulina?. To give any portion of the quota- 
tions which he makes from the Christian Scriptures, 
would be exceeding our bounds ; let it suffice to repeat 
the words of Dr Lardner, who says, that " there are 
perhaps more and larger quotations of the small vol- 



156 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



ume of the New Testament in this one Christian au- 
thor than of all the works of Cicero, though of so un- 
common excellence for thought and style, in writers of 
all characters for several ages." How much stronger 
and more abundant, then, the evidence for the books of 
the New Testament, than that for any other ancient 
work, even the most famous ? No one thinks of doubt- 
ing that the works called Cicero's were really written 
by him, and yet in this single writer, Tertullian, we 
have more evidence for the genuineness and truth of 
the New Testament, than three hundred years have 
given for the prince of Roman authors. How incon- 
sistent then is that man who receives Cicero, and rejects 
Matthew. 

13. The celebrated Clemens Alexandrinus, or as 
he is usually called Clement of Alexandria, next claims 
our notice. He was the preceptor of Origen, and flour- 
ished about 186, and from that to 217, the date of his 
death. In the fragments of his works preserved by Eu- 
sebius, he gives an account of the four Gospels, and says 
that those containing the genealogies, Matthew and 
Luke, were written first; Mark's next, at the request of 
Peter's followers ; and John's last. This account he 
informs us, he received from the early presbyters, This 
testimony of Clement comes to the same point with that 
of Tertullian, that the Gospel histories were in exist- 
ence long prior to him, and were received as the works 
of those whose names they bear by all the churches; 
His quotations are numerous, and his confidence in these 
books may be seen in the following: — "That this is true, 
appears from hence, that it was written in the Gospel 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 157 

according to Saint Luke." He rejects a passage which 
had been presented to him, for this reason, — " We have 
not this in the four Gospels delivered to us." This 
shows us that the Scriptures were the only authority, 
and that there were four, and only four Gospels ac- 
knowledged by these early Christians. 

14. Iren^us was bishop of Lyons in France, and 
the testimony which we derive from him embraces the 
period between 170 and 180. It will be seen that there 
is an interest and importance in his evidence when it is 
stated, that there was but one step between him and the 
Apostles. He was the disciple of the venerable Poly- 
carp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John. He was 
acquainted with many others who had seen and been in- 
s tructed by the immediate disciples of Christ. If he bears 
witness then to the genuineness of the gospel histories, it 
would seem decisive, for he must have had it from those 
who knew the reputed authors, and must of course have 
known whether they were the real authors. Now he 
does give us this witness, he advances the most decisive 
testimony to the books of the New Testament, with the 
exception of Paul's Epistle to Philemon, the third Epis- 
tle of John, and that of Jude ; which containing no doc- 
trinal matter, furnished him with nothing for the works 
in which he was engaged. He ascribes the Gospels 
and the Acts of the Apostles to the same persons whose 
names they bear, gives us a brief notice of these authors, 
and of the occasions of their writings. He extracts at 
length the particulars of Luke concerning Christ, which 
are not mentioned by the other Evangelists. He has 
collected from the book of Acts all the passages in 



158 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



which the writer is represented as accompanying Paul? 
which of course leads him to transcribe a large part of the 
latter half of the history. Speaking of the Evangelist, he 
says, "they first preached the Gospel, and afterward, by 
the will of God, committed it to writing, that it might be 
for time to come the foundation and pillar of our faith. 5 ' 
Again, he says, " Matthew then, among the Jews wrote 
a Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul 
were preaching at Rome, and founding a church there: 
and after their exit, Mark also, the disciple and inter- 
preter of Peter delivered to us in writing the things 
that had been preached by Peter ; and Luke, the com- 
panion of Paul, put down in a book the gospel preached 
by him. Afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord,, 
who also leaned upon his breast, likewise published a 
Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus in Asia." Beside 
this he quotes, word for word, thirteen of the Epistles of 
Paul, also those of James, Peter, and John, and the 
Apocalypse ; examples from each of which are given at 
length by Lardner. Here then we have the most ex- 
plicit testimony with regard to the existence and author- 
ship of the Gospel histories, Epistles, &c. by one who 
had conversed with those who had been taught by the 
disciples ! Once more — he speaks of the universal 
agreement of the Christians of that age in regard to the 
doctrines of Christ. "The church, though spread through- 
out the world, has but one faith — those in Germany, in 
Spain, among the Celts ; those in the East, those in 
Egypt, and in Africa, and in all places, have one faith, 
as if they lived in one house ; yea, they seem to have 
but one soul, one heart, and preach and teach as if they 
had but one mouth," 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 159 

15. For the sake of brevity, we omit a notice of 
the other writers of this period. Suffice it to say that 
Lardner has enumerated within these fifty years not 
fewer than thirty, some of whom were distinguished, 
and all of whom have quoted from, or abundantly ac- 
knowledged, the books of the New Testament. To 
these may be added the Epistle of the church of Lyons 
in France, to their brethren in Asia, containing a nar- 
rative of their cruel persecutions, in which they quote 
from the Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, 
and from Revelation. 

16. 150 — 100. The reader will see from this last 
date, that we draw near to the days of the disciples, for 
it was not till the year 100, that the Apostle John died. 
We meet first the renowned Justin, or as he is more 
frequently called, Justin Martyr, from having sealed 
his profession with his blood. He became a convert to 
Christianity in the year 133, and wrote largely from the 
year 140 until he was put to death, about twenty-five 
years after. He was a man of great learning ; he had 
studied all the popular systems of philosophy, and at last 
embraced Christianity as the only true philosophy. 
He composed during the persecutions, two apologies for 
the Christians, one of which was presented to the em- 
peror Antoninus Pius, the other to Marcus Antoninus 
and the Roman senate. He bears witness to the exist- 
ence of the Gospels in the following: — "For the Apos- 
tles in the memoirs composed by them, which are called 
Gospels have thus delivered it, that Jesus commanded 
them to take bread and give thanks." He farther says 
that these were publicly read in the assemblies of the 



160 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY*. 

Christians, with exhortations. After giving his opin- 
ion on a certain point, he adds — " As they have taught, 
who have written the history of all things concerning 
our Savior Jesus Christ. 53 In the compass of a few 
lines he quotes from three of the Gospels. — "An d in 
other words he says, 1 Depart from me into outer dark- 
ness, which the Father hath prepared for the devil and 
his angels.' And again he said in other words, ' I 
give unto you power to tread upon serpents, and scor- 
pions, and venomous beasts, and all the power of the 
enemy.' And before he was crucified, he said, ' The 
Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of 
the Scribes and Pharisees, and be crucified, and rise 
again the third day.' " Here are three quotations from 
the Gospels in succession; the first from Matthew xxv, 
the second from Luke x, and the third from Mark viii.* 
This testimony of Justin is valuable, proving — -1. The 
existence of these books so near the time of the Apos- 
tles — 2. That they were written by the companions of 
Christ — 3. That they were publicly read and known, 
17. We come next to Papi as, whose testimony em- 
braces the period between the years 110 and 116, which 
brings him into close contact with John. He does not 
say, however that he was acquainted with him, or even 
saw him, but affirms that he received accounts from 
those who had seen him and the other Apostles, and 
listened to their teachings. " If I chanced," says he, 



* Jones says," He cites our present canon, and particularly our four Gos- 
pels, continually, I dare say above two hundred tjines." New and Full Meth- 
ojL Appead. vol. i. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 161 

c 'to meet with any elder or presbyter, who had con- 
versed with the Apostles, I diligently inquired of him 
the sayings of the Apostles, what Andrew, what Peter, 
what Philip, and the other Apostles and disciples of the 
Lord had taught. For I desired to have the benefit 
not only of their books, but of the words which others 
had heard them speak." Here Papias informs us that 
writings from the disciples were then in existence ; and 
on another occasion, he speaks of them in such a man- 
ner as to show that they were publicly and generally 
known. He ascribes the Gospels to Matthew and 
Mark, the names they bear now, and tells us in what 
language Matthew wrote, and the materials from which 
Mark gathered his history, which, he says, was the 
preaching and information of Peter. From the diligent 
inquiries of Papias among those who were familiar 
with the disciples, it will at once be seen that his tes- 
timony is of the first importance, as he could not possi- , 
bly have been mistaken with regard to the authorship of 
the Gospel histories. 

18. The next step will bring us into the immediate 
neighborhood of the disciples and Apostles — -will intro- 
duce us to those who were familiar acquaintances and 
laborers with them. It will be evident, therefore, that 
if they give testimony to the existence of the Gospel his- 
tories, and allude to and quote them as authority, their 
genuineness is established beyond all question ; for they 
certainly must have known, and that from the very 
mouths of these disciples, whether or not they were the 
authors of these histories. Let us proceed then to add 
the last link to the chain 5 by giving their testimony. 



162 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

19. 100 — 33, the date of the death of Christ. Poly- 
carp was the disciple of the Apostle John, and received 
instruction from him concerning the religion of Christ, 
which of course throws his testimony as far back as the 
year 90, as John died about the year 100. His epistle 
to the church at Philippi abounds with references to 
the books of the New Testament. Though the whole 
letter occupies no more than four small quarto pages, 
yet in this brief space there are ten or fifteen clear allu- 
sions to, and twenty- five distinct quotations from, the 
books mentioned. The principal quotations are from 
Matthew, Luke, Acts, the Epistle to the Romans, first 
and second to Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Ephe- 
sians, first to Timothy, first of Peter, and first of John. 
The exactness of his quotations is perfect, " Judge not, 
that ye be not judged — with what measure ye meet, it 
shall be measured to you again." Luke vi. 36, 38. 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven." Matth. v. 3. " He who confesses not 
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, this is Anti-christ." 
1 John iv. 3. " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is 
weak." Matt, xx vi. 41. "We brought nothing into 
this world; we can carry nothing out." 1 Tim. vi. 7. 
These examples are sufficient to show that the Gospel 
histories were in existence at this age. And it is a 
strong argument in support of their general notoriety, 
that Polycarp does not name the books from which 
these quotations were taken, notwithstanding they are 
so numerous. This shows that they were books gen- 
erally known at that time, and therefore that it was un- 
necessary to mention where the passages would be 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 163 



found. This is precisely as we do at the present day ; 
in writing to a friend on a subject which should call for 
it, we quote the words, "Judge not, that ye be not 
judged," without stopping or thinking to name where 
they may be found, taking it for granted that the Bible 
is so generally known and read, that every one must 
know whence they came. This was the manner of 
Polycarp. 

20. Ignatius was bishop of Antioch, in the year 
70, about thirty-seven years from the crucifixion, and 
of course was contemporary with the Apostles. In his 
epistles, of which there are seven, he has distinctly al- 
luded to, or quoted the Gospels of Matthew and John, 
the Acts, and most of the Epistles. The following are 
examples — " The Spirit knows whence it comes, and 
whither it goes." John iii. 8. " Christ is the door by 
which we enter in." This is from Christ's words in 
John x. 9. " I am the door ; by me if any man enter 
in, he shall be saved." Again, " Be ye wise as ser- 
pents, and harmless as a dove." This is from Matt.x. 16. 

21. Next appears Clement of Rome. This was one 
of the companions of Paul, of whom he speaks in his 
Epistle to the Philippians, iv. 3. "With Clement also, 
and others my fellow-laborers, whose names are in the 
book of life." The Epistle which we have from Clem- 
ent was in great repute among the first Christians, and so 
much was it admired by all, that it was publicly read in 
the churches. Irenseus, of whom we have before spok- 
en, says, " It was written by Clement, who had seen 
the blessed Apostles, and conversed with them ; who 
had their preaching still sounding in his ears, and their 



164 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

declarations before his eyes." He quotes from the 
books of the New Testament after the same manner 
with Polycarp ; he does not name the book, but goes 
upon the presumption that those to whom he wrote 
were perfectly acquainted with the source from which 
the passages came ; which shows us how well the books 
were known, and how faithfully they were read by the 
first Christians. His letter was addressed to the church 
of Corinth, and he tells them to pay attention to the 
Epistles which Paul had written them. From the 
evangelical histories, or the Gospels, he quoted such 
passages as these — "Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain 
mercy ; as ye judge, so shall ye be judged ; with what 
measure ye mete, with the same it shall be measured un- 
to you." Again, he says, Remember the words of the 
Lord, for he said, " Wo to that man by whom offences 
come* it were better for him that he had not been born, 
than that he should offend one of my elect ; it were better 
that a millstone should be tied about his neck, and that 
he should be drowned in the sea, than that he should 
offend one of my little ones." Here are direct quota- 
tions, word for word, from Matthew and Luke, which 
prove that these histories were written at that time. 
Now, it must be evident that Clement knew whether 
these books w T ere written by the disciples or not, and 
if they were spurious histories, or, in other words, if the 
companions of Christ were not the authors, then he 
would not surely have acknowledged them. He might 
have gone direct to Paul for information, had there been 
any doubt, and have satisfied himself. The fact there- 
fore that Clement quotes them, and bears witness to 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 165 



their genuineness, is equal proof that they were ac- 
knowledged by Paul, otherwise Paul would have cor- 
rected him. It may not be out of place here to say, that 
there are points of striking resemblance in thought and 
diction, between Clement's epistle and that to the He- 
brews, which may perhaps be attributed to the fact that 
he was so much in the society, and heard so much of the 
preaching and conversation of Paul. 

22. Barnabas next calls our attention. He was 
also a fellow-laborer with Paul, and is frequently men- 
tioned by him in his Epistles. Luke has also given us 
an account of his travels with Paul, as may be seen in 
Acts xiv. xv. He has given his testimony to the exist- 
ence of the Gospel histories by quotations from them, 
such as follow : — " Let us therefore beware lest it come 
upon us as it is written : There are many called, few 
chosen." Again, " Christ showed that he came not to 
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." It will 
be observed that Barnabas quotes these passages with 
the preface, it is written, showing thereby that the book 
from which it is taken was one of authority. This ex- 
pression was in frequent use, and is indeed at this day 
employed in the same manner. We often say, when 
about to produce a passage from Scripture, "it is writ- 
ten," by which it is always understood that such pas- 
sages is taken therefrom. We learn from it too, that 
the Gospel histories as early as the days of Barnabas, 
were generally known, and appealed to as authority. 
The same remarks made in relation to Clement apply 
equally here — Barnabas being constantly in Paul's 
company for several years, and often meeting the other 



166 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



disciples, must have known whether they wrote the 
hooks ascribed to them. Had they not been the authors, 
they would have denied them, and Barnabas instead of 
quoting them, would have repeated the denial. The 
evidence then is decisive ; the Gospel histories were 
written at that age, and the disciples of Christ were the 
authors. 

23. We have now arrived at the end of the chain of 
evidence to be produced. We begun with our own 
day, and we have from this followed up the Gospel his- 
tories from year to year, until we have at last carried 
them to the very feet of the disciples of Christ. And 
now we would ask, Where is the man who would re- 
move them from this ? Where is the man who can 
steadily look this mass of historical evidence in the face, 
and not blush to affirm that these books were written 
two or three hundred years after Christ ? Yea, where 
is he who would not blush to deny that they were writ- 
ten in the days and by the very hands of the disciples 
themselves ? The man who would deny this, is 
bound to deny, if he would be consistent, the truth of all 
history — he should refuse to believe that such men as 
Alexander, Julius Caesar, or Brutus lived, or performed 
the works attributed to them ; he should reject the his- 
tories of Tacitus, which, as we have seen are not sup- 
ported by half the evidence ; and he should deny that 
Cicero ever wrote the Orations, or that Dion Cassius 
was the author of the histories which go in his name- 
yea, he should deny the genuineness of John Calvin's 
works, and affirm that they were written long after his 
time; and by the same rule should in twenty years 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 167 



from this time, or even now, reject the letters of Wash- 
ington and the works of Franklin, and assert that they 
were forged years after their death. This is consistent, 
this is fair : we only ask him to treat all other history 
as he treats the Christian history; and this is surely a 
reasonable and proper request. If he believes that the 
iEneid was written by Virgil, and at the time stated, 
because this is the voice of all history, let him by the 
same rule believe that the Gospels were written by the 
disciples of Christ, and at the time stated. 

24. But if he persist in refusing credit to the Gospel 
histories, we ask him to give a reason for it ; we cannot 
take the broad unsupported assertion that they are not 
the works of the disciples, as proof that they are not ; 
we must have something more than this. We have 
given him our reasons for believing that they are ; we 
have produced an unbroken series of proof from our 
own day to that of the disciples, every part of which 
testifies to this fact. Now, if he does not believe it, let 
him produce a like unbroken series of proof to the con- 
trary. Let him begin at this date and go back, as we 
have done on the other side, with an array of historical 
evidence which shall testify at every step that these 
books were not written by the disciples — let him do 
this, (and we shall be satisfied with nothing less,) and 
we will then confess that he has done something towards 
establishing his position. Or if, instead of establishing 
his own, he prefer to attack ours, let him place his fin- 
ger upon that link in the chain of proof presented him, 
which he would strike out ; and if he can prove a flaw, 
it shall be struck out. But let him remember that if 



168 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

he even accomplish this, he has done but little ; the 
chain is broken indeed, but not destroyed, and he has 
yet to go back from this, and prove all the rest, one by 
one, to be false likewise, before his task is finished. 
Now neither of these has ever yet been done, and until 
one or both are done, we hold that it is established be- 
yond dispute, that the Gospel histories were writ- 
ten BY THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.* 



* We cannot deny ourselves the privilege of adding here the confessions 
of several noted Deists. Chubb admits that the books of the New Testament 
are the production of the disciples and Apostles of Christ. Hobbes acknowl- 
edges that *' the writings of the New Testament are as ancient as the times 
of the Apostles; and that they were written by persons who lived in those 
times, some of whom saw the things they relate." The celebrated Lord Bol- 
ingbroke says, " It is out of dispute that we have in our hands the Gospels of 
Matthew and John, who give themselves [out as eye [and ear witnesses of all 
that Christ did and taught." Home i. 205. These men felt the force of his- 
torical evidence, and they knew too much to reject it. Gibbon may be added 
to their number. 



SECTION III. 



HAVE THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BEEN CORRUPTED % 

1. As there has been much said in relation to the ques- 
tion which stands at the head of this section, we have 
thought it might be proper, and acceptable, to give it a 
brief consideration. The assertion has often been made 
by the enemies of the Christian faith, that the Scriptures 
of the New Testament have been so much corrupted, 
that it is now altogether impossible for us to tell what 
was, and what was not, written by the disciples of Je- 
sus. And suppose, instead of replying to this, w r e pro- 
nounce it mere assertion, as with all propriety we 
might, and, according to the rules of argument, call up- 
on the unbeliever for proof 1 What would be his an- 
swer?- He says the books of the New Testament have 
bejen^ greatly corrupted. We desire the evidence of 
this; let him point to any particular portion, as being 
of this character, and by an appeal to the authority of 
history prove his assertion, and so far as that portion is 
concerned we will submit. It is not enough to say 
that they may have been corrupted, he must prove to a 
demonstration that they have been corrupted. This is 
12 



170 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

what he requires of us in regard to all our positions, 
and he ought not to shrink from his own rule. 

2. We are not disposed to stop here, however, 
though in justice we might do it. With many, who 
are not in the habit of thinking closely in these matters, 
the assertion in question has passed in its full extent as 
undoubted truth ; and the many attempts made to show 
its probability from circumstances, have tended to 
strengthen the conviction. There has been much dec- 
lamation about the ambitious designs of an aspiring 
priesthood; the ignorance of the people ; the darkness of 
the middle ages ; the scarcity of copies of the Scriptures : 
and many other like particulars, for the purpose of giv- 
ing an air of plausibility to the supposition. And it is 
through this studied mixture of a little truth with much 
error, this skillful blending of well known historical 
facts with speculations and false inferences, that not a 
few, who do but skim over the surface of things, have 
been led into the conclusion that the New Testament is 
too much altered and corrupted to be trusted. 

3. In the observations to follow we shall endeavor to 
point out some particulars which will show the weak- 
ness of this position, and the utter impracticability of 
the supposed corruption. In the first place, then, it is 
well known that the original manuscripts or auto- 
graphs of the writers, or at least some of them, were 
preserved for many years after their death. Ignatius 
appealed to them in the first century, and in the second 
century Tertullian affirms that they were carefully 
preserved in the Christian churches, and urges those 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 171 



who are curious in such matters to go and see them.* 
And yet later than this they are appealed to by Peter, 
bishop of Alexandria, in the fourth century. It will of 
course be admitted that while these autographs were in 
existence, all corruption was of necessity prevented, be- 
cause, in case any had been attempted, they would have 
been brought forward and have ended the matter at 
once. All attempts, therefore, at corruption must be 
assigned to a period posterior, at least, to the year 350, 
which grants more than can be justly asked, that these 
autographs may have been destroyed immediately after 
the death of Peter. 

4. To the above consideration, we have to add, that 
before the year 350, copies of the Bible, and especially 
of the New Testament, had been greatly multiplied.f 



* mt percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas, apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedraB 

Apostolorum suis locis president, apud quas ipsae authenticaB literae eorum 
recitantur." Cited by Grotius, De Veritate, 1. iii. § 2. 

f Eusebius informs us that he himself was ordered to provide Fifty Bibles, 
at the public expense, for different churches. It was thought that the reader 
might be interested in the perusal of the following letter, written more than 
3500 years ago by Constantine, the emperor, to Eusebius in relation to these 
Bibles. 

" Victor Constantius Maximus, Augustus to Eusebius." 
In that City which bears Our Name, [Constantinople] by the assistance of 
God our Saviour's Providence, a vast multitude of men have joined themselves 
to the most holy Church. Whereas, therefore, all things do there receive a 
very great increase, it seems highly requisite that there should be more church- 
es erected in that City. Wherefore do you receive most willingly that which 
I have determined to do. For it seemed fit to signify to your prudence, that 
you should order Fifty copies of the divine Scriptures, (the provision 
and use whereof you know to be chiefly necessary for the instruction of the 
church) to be written on well-prepared parchment, by artificial transcribers of 
books, most skilful in the art of accurate and fair writing ; which [copies] 
must be very legible and easily portable in order to their being used. More- 



172 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



And this should be carefully noticed, as it will be seen 
by every one, that the difficulty of corrupting the 
Greek manuscripts must have increased with every in- 
crease of their number. Now it is a well-known fact 
that the books of the New Testament have been tran- 
scribed, beyond all comparison, more frequently than 
the works of any ancient classic author, however popu- 
lar. Upwards of three hundred and fifty manuscripts 
were examined by Griesbach for his critical edition of 
the Greek Testament, some of which were more than 
twelve hundred years old. They were not all entire; 
some contained only the Gospels, others the Gospels 
and Acts of the Apostles, others the Epistles only, and 
others all but the Apocalypse.* From the multiplica- 
tion of these copies, therefore, the difficulty of corrup- 
tion would amount almost to an impossibility. 

5. The reverence with which the Christians regard - 
ed these books, is a strong presumptive argument 
against the possibility of corruption. Their attachment 



over, letters are dispatched away from our Clemency to the Rationalist of the 
DiGecesis, [an officer of the province] that he should take care for the providing 
of all things necessary in order to the finishing of the said copies. This 
therefore shall be the work of your diligence, to see that the written copies be 
forthwith provided. You are also empowered, by the authority of this our 
letter, to have the use of two public carriages, in order to their conveyance. 
For by this means, those which are transcribed fair, may most commodiously 
be conveyed even to our sight ; to wit, one of the Deacons of your church be- 
ing employed in the performance hereof. Who, when he comes to us, shall be 
made sensible of our bounty. God preserve you, Dear Brother." Euscbius T s 
Life of Constantine, cited by Town ley, Intro, pp. 37, 38. Eusebius informs os 
that he obeyed the order of the emperor, and sent him the u volumes magnifi- 
cently adorned." 
* Home's Intro, pp. 116, 117« 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 173 

to them was truly remarkable in some instances, 
"Women wore them in a volume hanging at their 
necks. Most persons carried it about them constantly. 
Some even washed their hands ^before they allowed 
themselves to take it for reading. And many have 
been found buried with the Gospel lying upon their 
breasts. Children were trained up from their infancy 
to repeat it by heart." Eusebius mentions many ex- 
amples of persons who had committed to memory the 
whole or parts of the Bible. Among others, one Va- 
lens, a deacon of JElia, is said to have been above all 
others conversant in the Divine writings, so that he 
could repeat on occasion passages in any part of Scrip- 
ture, as readily and correctly as if he had unfolded the 
book and read them. He also mentions John, an 
Egyptian, who could recite whole books at a time, and 
would, if necessary, repeat the Law of Moses, or the 
Prophetical parts of Scripture, or those of history, or 
the Letters of the Apostles. It would seem that such a 
reverence and love for the Sacred Books, would effectu- 
ally prevent the Christians from corrupting them. 
Men are not wont to abuse what they respect, and if 
ever respect and affection for any writings existed, it 
was surely manifested in such examples as those given. 
Under these circumstances and the influence of these 
feelings, let it be asked if there was much danger of 
corruption or alteration ? 

6. But even passing this over, and, for the sake of 
trying the question, admitting that the reverence of the 
Christians for the Scriptures was not sufficient to have 
prevented corruption, if they were disposed to it, there 



174 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

are still difficulties in the way which cannot be re- 
moved. Suppose the people had undertaken to alter 
them so as to favor their wishes in some way. How 
soon would they have been detected by the priests, and 
their wickedness been brought to light. The people, 
therefore, could not have effected this object, had they 
designed it. If corrupted, then, the priests must have 
done it. But here we have the same difficulty, for had 
they attempted it, the people would have detected them 7 
and have exposed the unholy fraud. So that in either 
case the design would have been frustrated. But we 
will concede yet more. 

7. Suppose it possible that the priests might have 
succeeded, not once only, but to any extent desired, in 
corrupting the New Testament,, is it probable they 
would have left it in its present state ? Why did they 
not alter it in such a way as to aggrandize themselves^ 
to acquire wealth and power by its sanction ? Why 
did they not strike out such passages as- these — " A 
bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigi- 
lant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt 
to teach ; not given to wine T no striker, not greedy of 
filthy lucre ; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous ; 
one that ruleth well his own house, having his children 
in subjection with all gravity." Why r if they were bad 
enough to corrupt the Scriptures, why did they not 
away with these commands, and substitute in their 
place that which would give them full permission to 
have as many wives as they pleased, to inebriate them- 
selves when they chose, to quarrel, to get filthy lucre 
and power in any and every way they could 1 These 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 175 



are questions, which must be answered by him who af- 
firms that the priests have corrupted the New Testa- 
ment to suit their own purposes. And when he has 
disposed of these he will find many more as difficult, 
and which it will cost no little labor to answer in ac- 
cordance with this favorite assertion. 

8. This argument seems to us to have some weight, 
for it is evident that if the priests, as they are termed, 
had had the disposition and the opportunities for alter- 
ing the Scriptures, they would have left out many pas- 
sages now contained in them which command the 
strictest obedience, humility, sobriety, and chastity on 
their part ; while with equal strictness they forbid all 
ungodliness and worldly lusts, all desire for riches and 
power, and every thing that is inconsistent with entire 
devotion to the moral and spiritual interests of those 
with whom they are connected as teachers. The fact, 
therefore, that the books of the New Testament abound 
with exhortations and restrictions of this character, is, in 
our view strong and decisive proof that they have not been 
corrupted by priestcraft, but that we have them as they 
came from the hands of their authors. We cannot but 
add here, that this circumstance weighed so heavily 
with a noted opposer of Revelation, that he makes the 
following candid confession : — " I am persuaded the ec- 
clesiastics did not falsify the Scriptures ; because if they 
had an intention so to do, they would surely have made 
them more favorable to their power over Christian 
princes, and civil sovereignty than they are." * 



, * Hobbes, cited by Home from Leland's Deistical Writers, v. i. p. 58. 



176 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

9. We come now to the consideration of other partic- 
ulars, in proof that the New Testament could not have 
been corrupted. Soon after the death of the Apostles, 
there rose up in the church many heretics, as they are 
called, who endeavored to create sects and divisions 
among the Christians, which they succeeded in effect- 
ing to a considerable extent; Indeed there were such 
in the days of the Apostles. Paul, in his second Epis- 
tle to the Corinthians, speaks of one of this sort ; and 
the author of Revelation, in the second chapter, twice 
mentions the Nicolaitanes, who were the followers of 
one Nicolas who had led them away from the purity 
of Apostolical teaching. Cerinthus also, who was con- 
temporary with John, was the leader of another sect 
which had departed from the truth. These sectarian 
leaders, and their parties and divisions, greatly increas- 
ed after the disciples had been removed from the scene 
of their labors. The Valentinians, the Marcionites, and 
the Donatists, with other sects half Christian and half 
Pagan, were powerful parties. These were continually 
exciting controversies on doctrinal points, and were al- 
ways opposed by the orthodox Christians. It will be 
seen that it was utterly impossible, divided as they were, 
to have altered the Scriptures, to have taken out or in- 
serted any thing in their own favor or against their 
antagonists. The moment this should have been at- 
tempted by either party, the other would have exposed 
it, and seized upon the circumstance to injure their 
cause. To show the truth of this it is only necessary 
to refer to facts. These attempts were made by the Va- 
lentinians, and more especially by Marcion, the head of 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 177 

one of the sects above mentioned. They sought to prop 
up their cause by altering several passages in their 
copies of the Scriptures, but the fraud was immediately 
discovered by their opposers, and they were held up to 
merited reproach for their impious daring. 

10. If we come down to the middle of the fourth 
century, we shall find the commencement of that great 
division of the Christians into the eastern and western 
churches, which continues to this day under the names 
of the Greek church and the Roman or Roman Catho- 
lic church. From this date, all corruptions were of 
course at an end, because the moment one of these par- 
ties had interpolated, or in any way changed aught of 
the New Testament, the other would have exposed 
them with triumph. They were very hostile to each 
other, (shame to their profession) and would not have 
suffered any thing of this kind to have passed without 
notice, yea, they would have received a bitter satisfac- 
tion in lashing one another for any design or attempt 
of this nature. Suppose, for the sake of illustration, 
that the believers in the final holiness and happiness of 
all mankind should undertake, at the present day, to 
insert in the Gospels or Epistles of the New Testament 
a passage in support of their doctrine, or to strike out 
one which they thought militated against it — how long 
would this remain undiscovered, how long would it be 
before their opposers would detect and expose the fraud ? 
And on the other hand, should those who believe in the 
endless punishment of the wicked attempt a similar 
corruption in behalf of their doctrine, would they not be 
exposed with equal avidity ? And in either case what 



178 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

a tremendous outcry would be made against the guilty 
party ! Well, this is a perfect fac-simile of the situa- 
tion and feelings of the early Christians, and shows 
plainly the utter impossibility of corrupting the Scrip- 
tures in any respect by any party or class of Christians 
whatever. 

11. We have not yet done; the difficulties mention- 
ed thus far have all been within ; we shall mention now 
one or two from without. The first is, that, had the 
Christians, priests and people of all parties, been agreed 
to alter or corrupt the books of the New Testament, 
they nevertheless could not have done it without de- 
tection. Had any thing of the kind been attempted, 
the Jews who hated Christians and Christianity with a 
perfect hatred, and were watching all their actions and 
movements, with an intense and malicious interest, 
would at once have opened upon them a storm of furi- 
ous invective and reproach. They would have exulted 
in the detection and exposure of any fraud of this char- 
acter, because it would have served them finely in their 
opposition to the religion of the despised Nazarene, and 
they would have made much of it in charging home 
upon his followers dishonesty and imposture. 

12. While thus watched on the one hand by the 
Jews, they were equally closely beset by the Heathen 
on the other. Among these, as has been already no- 
ticed, they had many very acute and learned adversaries, 
who had exerted themselves to the uttermost in their 
opposition to the Christian religion. They brought 
forward all manner of accusations against its believers, 
charging them with the foulest actions, and the most 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 179 

abominable crimes. And had they attempted to alter 
their sacred books, this would have been greedily seiz- 
ed by these men and hurled in their faces. And these 
adversaries were not ignorant of the Scriptures of the 
New Testament; Porphyry in particular was thor- 
oughly acquainted with them from beginning to end, 
as his writings show, and would have quickly discov- 
ered any attempted corruption. 

13. We would ask the candid Infidel if he would suf- 
fer the Christians of the present day to corrupt the 
Scriptures in any respect without exposure 7 Suppose 
they were to add a passage in the way of explanation 
to some imagined difficulty, or to interpolate some new 
doctrine, or to erase any portion on which unbelievers 
had raised objections — would these unbelievers leave 
it unnoticed ? would they fail to discover and expose 
the fraud 1 S.urely not, it would soon be brought into 
the light, and the Infidel would charge the Christians 
with the deception, and warn others against trusting 
them or their books. The Infidel will admit, then, for 
his own shrewdness sake, that it cannot be done now, 
and in this he virtually admits that it could not have 
been done at the time in question ; for the primitive 
Christians were situated in this respect exactly as are 
Christians of the present day. They were watched and 
opposed by the Jews on the one hand, and the Pagans 
on the other, and they knew it ; so that it was impos- 
sible, had they been ever so much disposed, to have in- 
terpolated, altered, or in any way corrupted their books 
without exposure, and consequent condemnation to 
themselves, their books, and their religion. 



180 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



14. There is one other fact which, were there no 
others, would be sufficient of itself to show that the 
New Testament writings could not have been corrupted 
without discovery. It has already been stated that soon 
after they were composed, translations of them were 
made into various languages, and copies of these were 
scattered far and near through Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
Now suppose, which is itself an impossibility, that all 
the Greek copies could have been altered, still this 
would have effected nothing, because the various ver- 
sions which had been spread abroad would have con- 
tained the authentic account,* and have exposed the 
fraud which had been committed. Let us again resort 
to illustration. Take, as an example, the constitution 
of the United States, and consider for a moment the dif- 
ficulties attending an attempt to corrupt this by alter- 
ing all the copies of it which are distributed through 
the country ! The bare thought shows its impossibili- 
ty. But suppose, farther, that this instrument was 
translated into the French, German, Spanish, and Rus- 
sian languages, and copies of these translations dispers- 
ed through their respective countries, and then consid- 
er the additional, the insuperable obstacles in the way 



* An instance of the great care taken to prevent corruption, is given in the 
celebrated Syriac manuscript brought from India by Dr. Buchanan, to whom 
it was presented by Mar Dionysius, the then, 1808, bishop of the Syrian 
Christians. It is written on parchment, in large folio, and the words are all 
numbered throughout the copy. Had any alteration been made in transcrib- 
ing from this, it is easy to see how quickly it would have been detected. This 
manuscript had been in the hands of the Syrian Christians nearly a thousand 
years. Buchanan's Sermon, Star in the East, p. 193, note. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 181 



of altering or corrupting. It will be seen that if it was 
accomplished in this country, the European versions 
would still remain untouched, and would be brought 
forward to expose the treachery. Apply this to the 
Gospel constitution, or the New Testament, and the 
utter hopelessness of any attempt at falsifying it will at 
once be demonstrated. And that no such attempt has 
ever succeeded, if made, is proved by the fact that all 
the manuscripts and versions agree in telling precisely 
the same story ; and their uniformity in this respect, 
scattered as they are, over so wide a space, and in so 
many languages, is truly astonishing, and shows the 
veneration in which they have been held by Christians 
in all ages.* 

15. As a certain proof that the New Testament has 
not been corrupted, or that it is now what it was in the 
begining, we refer to the fact that all the early writers 
quote the contents in the same language, and mention 
all the great events of the history in the same words 
that are found in these books at the present day. And 
it has been said that were the Gospels and Epistles ot 



* It may be well to say here a few words in relation to what are termed 
" various readings." These are not corruptions, but are errors resulting from 
the carelessness or haste of transcribers. They seldom affect the sense, being 
mostly of a trivial character, having no bearing whatever upon essential 
points of faith or practice. The great majority of them are differences in 
stops or maiks, the insertion of an article, the omission or addition of a letter, 
the change of a word for its equivalent, the change of a capital for a small 
letter, the transposition of words, letters, &c. It will at once be seen that this 
severe examination of hundreds of manuscripts and versions, and of all the 
works of the Christian fathers, would swell the number of such errors to a 
great extent, and yet not in the least affect the great doctrines, or facts of the 
histoiy. This is the truth, for all of them put together do not make one single 
material alteration. 



182 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

the New Testament entirely lost, we might collect al- 
most a complete copy of them from the commentaries 
and other writings of these ancient authors, so numer- 
ous are their quotations. This is unquestionably true 
in relation to the Gospels, for the works of these early 
fathers abound with, not only quotations, but in some 
cases very lengthy extracts from these books. Indeed, 
a perfect history of Jesus Christ might be gathered 
from Celsus, who has been mentioned as a violent op- 
poser of Christianity in the year 176. He mentions all 
the great events of his life, which he took from the four 
Gospels, and in many instances descends to particulars, 
all which are the same events and particulars found 
in our present histories.* These facts show very clear- 
ly that the New Testament has not been altered, but 
that it is to all intents and purposes the same volume 
which was in the hands of the nrst Christians and their 
opposers, containing the same accounts that it did when 
first written. 

Before proceeding farther, it may be well to sum up 
the results of the present chapter. 

1. In the first section it was proved by the authority 
of unbroken historical evidence that there were Christ- 
ians eighteen hundred years since, and that they de- 
rived their origin, name, and religion, from Jesus Christ, 
who lived and taught at that period in Judea, and was 
there crucified by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. 



* See ch. viii. § i. paragraph 6 of this work, where the particulars are given. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 183 

2. In the second section it was proved by the same 
authority, that the sacred writings of the Christians, or 
the books of the New Testament, were written by the 
companions and Apostles of Jesus Christ. 

3. In the third section it has been proved that these 
books have not suffered from any alterations, and there- 
fore, that they contain the same histories and doctrines 
now, which they contained when they came from the 
hands of their authors. 

It remains now to ascertain whether these histories 
are true, whether they are a faithful record of actual 
events. To this question we shall give attention in what 
follows. 



CHAPTER VII. 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTHS OF THE GOS- 
PEL HISTORY. 

SECTION I. 

ARGUMENT FROM THE CHARACTER OF THE RELIGION AND OF ITS AUTHOR, 

1. In the farther prosecution of our inquiries we 
shall go forward in the strength of the position already 
established. It will be kept in mind by the reader that 
there is to be no more question with regard to the gen- 
uineness or authorship of the books of the New Testa- 
ment: this question is to be considered as settled, until 
the unbeliever is enabled to sweep away the authority 
of the whole body of classical literature, and the very 
foundation of all political history. When he succeeds 
in doing this, when he succeeds in convincing the pres- 
ent generation that they know nothing of other days 
and other men — then, and not till then, can he affect 
the fact already demonstrated, that the Gospel histories 
were written by the disciples, the companions of Jesus 
Christ. The only remaining question, then, to be an- 
swered, is this : Are the Apostolical or Gospel histories 
authentic 1 or, in other words, are they a relation of 
facts ? This established, and our work is done. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 185 

2. An argument of much weight in proof of the Chris- 
tian histories, is found in the character and objects of 
that religion of whose origin they give an account. 
There is an excellency, a sublimity and perfection in 
this religion, which the wisest of that age in which it 
was brought forth were utterly incapable of conceivings 
Its revelations, its principles and precepts, are as far 
above the dreams, the wild and absurd speculations of 
the philosophers as the heavens are above the earth. 
Where is there any thing in the whole range of hea- 
then philosophy and learning that will compare with 
the views presented in the New Testament of the attri- 
butes and purposes of God, of his moral government, 
and of the creation and destinies of the human family 1 
Where, among the philosophers and sages of antiquity, 
will you find a system of morality as pure, as elevated, 
as perfect as that laid down by the Gospel writers as 
delivered to them of their Master ? Indeed, the whole 
body of Pagan wisdom and morality might be brought 
together, and all that is good from each taken to form 
a system of faith and practice, and it would then, com* 
pared with the New Testament, be but a taper's ray to 
the brightness of the meridian sun. This will appear 
to the satisfaction, we may say, of any one who will ap- 
ply himself with a candid mind to an examination of 
the subject. 

3. The Christian Scriptures present us with a God 
who is a Spirit, and seeketh only such to worship him 
as worship him in spirit and in truth: a God who is 
immortal, invisible, and unchangeable — -whose power is 
omnipotence, whose wisdom is omniscience, whose pres* 

13 



186 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



ence pervades all space, and whose goodness is as 
boundless as his own existence ; a God who created 
the heavens, and earth, and seas — who is the Father of 
all spirits, of whom, through whom, and to whom are 
all things. Is there not a grandeur in these concep- 
tions with regard to the Deity which infinitely surpass- 
es the low and degrading views which the heathen en- 
tertained respecting their numerous gods 1 And what 
with regard to his worship ? These Scriptures assure 
us that it does not consist in sacrifice, but in the affec- 
tions, in the endeavor to make ourselves like unto him 
- — wise because he is wise, just because he is just, good 
because he is good, and holy because he is holy. How 
far this beyond the offerings of gold and silver^ of wine* 
and flour, and slaughtered bullocks, and human blood, 
which characterised the worship of the Pagan deities I 
And whence came this superiority of the Christian 
faith 1 How is it that this should have been so much 
more spiritual and refined ? How is it that a few poor 
fishermen and mechanics of Judea should have present- 
ed the world with a religion so far exalted above all 
that the sages of Egypt, and Greece, and Rome, ever 
produced ? We press the question — How is it that 
these obscure and unlettered men could have conceived 
a religion so ennobling in its views of the Supreme 
Being, a religion simple enough for the humblest, and 
sublime enough for the loftiest minds 1 Such mechan- 
ics, such fishermen, never lived before, and have surely 
never lived since. 

4. If we turn to the morality of the Christian reli- 
gion, we shall discover the same superiority, we shall 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 187 

find a purity and perfection which that age of itself nev- 
er could have produced. The writings of the wisest 
and best who flourished before, and at the time of, the 
advent of Christ, show plainly that they were altogether 
unable to reach the elevated standard of Gospel morali- 
ty without assistance, that they were incapable of form- 
ing a system so correct, so harmonious in all its princi- 
ples and precepts. The beauty and excellency of Christ- 
ianity in this respect are indeed beyond praise, and it 
carries upon its very face the impress of its divine 
original. It has no communion with that morality 
which regulates only the exterior, which restrains only 
the outward action, while it leaves the affections un- 
touched. It goes farther than this — it seeks to purify 
the fountain from corruption, it aims to correct the prin- 
ciples, to regulate the heart, and to form the lives of 
men by forming their dispositions. Many things which 
the world approves, or at least refuses to condemn, are 
forbidden in the most express terms by the Gospel — as 
the inordinate love of power and wealth, the extrava- 
gant devotion to pleasure, pride, ambition, envy, the 
cherishing unholy passions and appetites. All these 
are unhestitatingly denounced in every form, and de- 
gree by the Christian faith. " It prohibits the adultery 
of the eye, and the murder of the heart ; and commands 
the desire to be strangled in its birth. Neither the 
hands, the tongue, the head, nor the heart, must be 
guilty of one iniquity. However the world may ap- 
plaud the heroic ambition of one, the love of glory in 
another, the successful pursuit of affluence in a third, 
the high-minded pride, the glowing patriotism which 



188 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

would compel all neighboring nations to bow the neck; 
the steady pursuit of revenge for injuries received, and 
a sovereign contempt of the rude and ignoble vulgar, — * 
Christianity condemns them all, and enjoins its disci- 
ples to crucify them without delay. Not one is to be 
spared, though dear as a right eye for use or pleasure* 
or even necessary as a right hand for defence or labor. 
The Gospel does not press men to consider what their 
fellow men may think of them, or how it will affect their 
temporal interests ; but what is right." * Such is the 
morality of the New Testament. 

5. Now we ask here where the Jewish fishermen 
obtained this admirable code of morals, if their story be 
not true? They tell us that they received these things 
from Jesus, who was sent of God to proclaim them to 
the world, and to whom God communicated without 
measure, the spirit of wisdom, and knowledge, and un- 
derstanding. If we refuse to believe their story, how 
shall we account for it that, ignorant and unskilled as 
they were in the learning and philosophy of the age, 
they were nevertheless able to give to the world a reli- 
gion whose morality, in its purity and adaptation to the 
wants of men, far exceeded any thing the world had 
known before ? We see not how this question can be 
answered without, on the one hand, involving what may 
be pronounced an impossibility, or on the other the ad- 
mission of the truth of the Gospel history. Men situat- 
ed as these writers were, could not have produced, from 
their own observation and knowledge, the moral sys- 



* Home's Intro, v. i. p. 418. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 189 



tern of the New Testament ; they could not, surrounded 
with the corruptions of the age in which they lived, 
have acquired of themselves such correct conceptions 
of the great principles of ethics, such exalted and perfect 
views of human duty as they have unfolded in their 
works. 5 * There is proof, then, in this unquestionable 
fact, of the truth of the history they have given us,which 
history satisfactorily accounts for the sublimity of their 
religion, and the excellency of their moral principles 
and precepts. 

6. Another evidence of the truth of the Gospel histo- 
ry is the character of Jesus Christ. It is wholly orig- 
inal, altogether unlike any that had ever been portray- 
ed before, and as pure and perfect as the religion of 
which he was the founder. There is nothing about 
him which partakes of the age in which he lived ; he 
is as free from its prejudices, its follies, and errors, as if 
he were the inhabitant of another world. Though a 
Jew, it is but in name ; he had none of the bigotry or 
selfishness, none of the narrow feelings of a Jew ; his 
views of things ran far beyond the bounds of Judea, 
burst out from the trammels of the Mosaic institutions, 
and took in those that were near, and those that were 
afar off! He lived not for himself, not for a single peo- 



* " That a system so just, so liberal, so comprehensive and complete, should 
have been invented and published by a combination of the efforts and research- 
es of the wisest and best men in any age and country, would have been the 
subject of just admiration j but that it should have been introduced, and taught* 
and inculcated, without any ostentation or parade, by a small number of un- 
learned men, who had been educated in all the narrow bigotry and malignant 
prejudices of Pharisaic Jews, is surely to the last degree incredible, not to say 
absolutely impossible, if the supposition of divine instruction, and supernatub 
ml illumination should be denied." Belsham's Evidences, pp. 95 } 96, 



190 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

pie, but for the world, and for the world he labored and 
taught. His expansive mind, his generous affections, 
could not be confined within the contracted limits of 
name or party; he sought the good of the great whole, 
and found his own happiness in promoting the happiness 
of his race. This was not the characteristic of the age, 
it was a feeling, a principle, centuries in advance of 
those around him ; yea, it was a stream from the foun- 
tain of divinity. 

7. He was of humble birth, the son of a carpenter, a 
native of the obscure village of Nazareth ; he had no 
powerful friends, no wealth, no patronage, or rank, or 
education, fitting him for the mighty work which he 
undertook. And yet this young man, starting under 
all these disadvantages and discouragements, forms the 
stupendous plan of overturning " the time-hallowed and 
deep-rooted religions of the world," and establishing a 
new and better faith and practice ! This was an attempt 
never yet made ; all other religions had been for a sin- 
gle people, for particular nations. The most extrava- 
gant ambition had never aimed at so great an acquisi- 
tion as the bringing the world into one common faith. 
But the humble, unlettered, and unknown Nazarene, 
unsupported and alone, stands forth as a leader in this 
mighty enterprise, and announces a religion intended 
for all, a religion which is to supersede every other, 
and to be received by all nations, and climes, and 
tongues ! * 

8. And how does he sustain his new and difficult po- 



* See on this particular the eloquent language of Channing, in his dudlei&n 
Lecture. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 191 

sition ? In a most wonderful manner ; lie never once de. 
parts from his course, never once falls below trie dignity 
of his enterprise in language or in conduct. His teach- 
ings and his actions, his doctrines and his demeanor, 
are always marked with a perfect consciousness of su- 
periority and authority, well fitting the character of the 
work he had undertaken. When reviled, he never 
came down from the height on which he stood to revile 
again : when persecuted, he bore it with the calmness 
of one who, expecting it from the outset, had counted 
the cost and was ready to meet it ; when cursed, he re- 
turned it with blessings, and never, on any occasion, 
however much of provocation there was, lost the com- 
mand of his feelings. There was no hasty or angry 
speaking, no show of retaliation or revenge towards 
those who injured him; he seemed to look beyond these 
things with the calm confidence of one who knows he 
shall succeed at last, in spite of the obstacles that spring 
up in his pathway. And though often placed in the 
most difficult and trying situations, he was never once 
betrayed into the saying or doing any thing unworthy 
of himself, or inconsistent with the nature and objects of 
the sacred mission in which he was engaged. And to 
set the seal to the whole, he died as he had lived, his 
last words a prayer for his murderers, — Father, for- 
give them, for they know not what they do." 

9. Such is the character of Jesus Christ, as given in 
the Gospel histories. Now that such men as the Evan- 
gelists, without learning, or science, or philosophy, 
should of themselves conceive so perfect, so glorious a 
character, without any model or reality from which to 



192 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

copy, is as probable as that a savage just from the 
woods should have written the Philosophical Essays of 
Hume, or the astronomical works of Newton. The 
supposition is, in our opinion, a moral impossibility, and 
it is believed that no candid person would dissent from 
this opinion. The only conclusion then, is, that the 
character of Christ is real, and that the Gospel writers 
have copied their account from life. 

10. We shall offer no apology for adding here the 
acknowledgment of a celebrated sceptic. " I will con- 
fess," says he, "that the majesty of the Scriptures 
strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel 
has its influence upon my heart. Peruse the works of 
our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction : how 
mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the 
Scripture ! Is it possible that a book, at once so sim- 
ple and sublime, should be merely the work of man 1 
Is it possible that the sacred personage, whose history 
it contains, should be a mere man ? Do we find that he 
assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary 1 
What sweetness, what purity in his manners ! What an 
affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity 
in his maxims ! What profound wisdom in his discov- 
eries ! What presence of mind in his replies I How 
great the command over his passions ! Where is the 
man, where the philosopher, who could so live, and 
so die, without weakness, and without ostentation? 
Shall we suppose the Evangelic history a mere fiction ? 
Indeed, it bears not the marks of a fiction ; on the con- 
trary, the history of Socrates, which no one presumes 
to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ. 
Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 193 

without obviating it : it is more inconceivable that a 
number of persons should agree to write such a history, 
than that one only should furnish the subject of it. The 
Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and were 
strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel, the 
marks of whose truths are so striking and inimitable, 
that the inventor would be a more astonishing character 
than the hero." * 

1 1. Such is the language of a distinguished unbeliev- 
er ; and he speaks truly when he says that the inventor 
would be a more wonderful character than the hero. 
And we ask even the most reluctant to contemplate the 
inimitable character of Christ as given in the New Tes- 
tament, to consider by whom it is drawn, and determine 
whether they can come to any other conclusion. A 
character, the harmony and perfection of which never 
has been equalled,— a religion bursting out from the 
midnight of heathenism and presenting the world, with 
the most sublime and ennobling views of the only true 
and living God, and of the spiritual worship required by 
him, — a morality in which all is correct, consistent and 
complete, in which no virtue is omitted, and no false 
principle tolerated, in which no external rite whatever 
is allowed to take the place of duty, while duty is made 
to consist in those very acts and dispositions upon which 
the proud philosophy of the age looked with contempt; 
as humility, meekness, forbearance, forgiveness, love of 
enemies, and a desire to promote the welfare and hap- 
piness of all — that this splendid system could have been 



* Rousseau, quoted by Home, v. i. p. 421. note. 



194 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

the invention of men whose lives had been a scene of 
continued labor, whose hands and heads had ever been 
at work to get their bread,— is a greater miracle, by far 
than any recorded in the Gospel history,* and he who 
rejects this history, escapes not the supernatural, but is 
absolutely forced into the admission of a more wonder- 
ful miracle than he is required to believe in receiving 
it as truth. According to his own principles, therefore, 
the sceptic should believe the Gospel history, for in so 
doing he chooses the least of two evils. 

12. We have been somewhat more lengthy on this 
particular than was intended, but if the reader attaches 
to it the same importance that we do, he will not be dis- 
pleased. If we know any thing of the principles by 
which human nature is regulated, or of the causes to 
which the human mind is indebted for its acquisitions 
in knowledge and power, there is some weight in the 
observations which have been made. We are certain 
that a Hottentot could not have framed the Constitution 
of the United States ; we are certain of this from what 
we know of the nature and mind of man in such a situ- 
ation as that of the Hottentots ; and by the same rule 
we are certain that the Evangelists could not have in- 
vented the character and actions of Jesus Christ, or the 
religion of the New Testament. The fair conclusion 
then, and, it would seem, the only honest one, is, that 
the Gospel History is true. 



* Mr. II u mo would say that it is "contrary to all our experience," and 
therefore false. Will his followers abide the result of his theory ? 



SECTION II. 



ARGUMENT FROM THE SIMPLICITY AND CIRCUMSTANTIALITY OF THE 
HISTORY. 

1. The simplicity of the Gospel narrative affords a 
strong presumption in favor of its truth. It is generally 
the case when men have a wonderful story to tell, that 
they are lavish of their professions of veracity, that they 
are continually intermixing with their relations declara- 
tions of the truth of these relations, as if they expected to 
have them doubted. # And every little incident or par- 
ticular, which might furnish any thing of credit to the 
tale, is seized upon and made to stand forth in bold re- 
lief. But we see nothing of this kind in the Gospel 
writers, no attempt to bolster up their statements by re- 
peated assertions of their own honesty, or of the proba- 
bility and reasonableness of the facts they relate. There 
is a perfect simplicity and honesty in the whole of their 
history from first to last. The most ordinary circum- 
stances, and the most astounding events, are stated in 
the same open manner, and with the same calmness of 
spirit. It does not seem to have occurred to them that 



This is strikingly illustrated in the Koran of Mohammed. 



196 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



they must make any protestations of sincerity, or de- 
clare to their readers that they were telling the truth ; 
they know that they are honest themselves, and they 
seem to take it for granted that no one will suspect them 
of being otherwise ; and it is in this temper of mind that 
they record the most wonderful miracles, without ever 
dreaming that their statements will be called in question. 
Indeed, they proceed upon the ground that the facts of 
which they write had already acquired such a notorie- 
ty, were so public, so well known, that no one would 
think of disputing them, and hence they do not stop to 
make any affirmations, or enter into any labored argu- 
ments to prove them true. 

2. Let us take a few examples.—" And a certain man 
was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight 
years. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and 
walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and 
took up his bed and walked." John v. Here is the re- 
lation of a great miracle, and the relation only; there is 
no attempt to prove it true, no assertions that it was a 
real manifestation of supernatural power — they simply 
state the fact, and there leave it. Again,—" He com- 
manded the multitude to sit down on the grass ; and 
took the five loaves and two fishes, and, looking up to 
heaven, he blessed and brake; and gave the loaves to 
his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And 
they did all eat, and were filled, and they took up of the 
fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they 
that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside wo- 
men and children." Matt. xiv. Here is the account of 
another wonderful event, but there is annexed to it no 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 197 

declarations of its authenticity ; the writer says not a 
word in the way of defending the truth of his story ; he 
does not seem to think of being disbelieved, and, there* 
fore, takes no precaution to fortify his statements with 
accompanying asseverations. Once more.— When the 
widow of Nain's son was carried out to burial, the his* 
torian says, " The Lord saw her, and had compassion 
on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and 
touched the bier: and they that bear it stood stilL 
And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And 
he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he 
delivered him to his mother." Luke vii. This, too, is 
the record of a stupendous miracle, and yet the same 
simplicity and confidence is observed in its narration* 
Not a single effort to gain the belief of the reader, not 
one word of explanation with the view of making it ap- 
pear plausible ; he gives us the statement only, and hav- 
ing done this, leaves it in our hands. Now, we ask any 
man if this does not look like honesty 1 if it does not 
carry upon its very face the appearance of truth ? Had 
these statements been mere fabrications, they certainly 
would have chosen a more insidious style of relating 
them ; they would have been ready with their apologies 
and affirmations, for the purpose of making them go 
down. But not so here ; the writers lay before us these 
astonishing accounts with all the frankness imaginable, 
without adding any qualifications or recommendations, 
" It does not appear," says Dr. Duchal, "that ever it 
came into the mind of these writers, hoiv this or that ac- 
tion would appear to mankind, or what objections might 
be raised on them. Bat, without at all attending to 



198 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



this, they state the plain facts, at no pains to think 
whether they would appear credible or not. If the 
reader will not believe their testimony, there is na help 
for it: they tell the truth, and attend to nothing else. 
Surely this looks like sincerity, and that they published 
nothing to the world but what they believed them- 
selves."* 

3. Another evidence of the truth of these histories, is 
the particularity which appears in the notice or account 
of almost every event. The writers continually refer 
to persons and places, giving names and dates, and con- 
necting a variety of circumstances with their narratives, 
which they certainly would not have done if they knew 
their statements to be false. A man who seeks to im- 
pose upon the public a story having na truth in it, is 
careful to avoid mentioning any names, dates, or places, 
and is sure to add no circumstances, to make no allu- 
sions, which might lead to a detection of the fraud. The 
man who should design to deceive you in the relation of 
some wonderful event, would not tell you that it hap- 
pened in the city of Washington, at noon of the first 
day of January, 1836 ; that it was witnessed by Mr. A. 



* Presumpt Ev. cited by Paley. The remarks of Dr. Campbell on this 
point are equally happy : — " The greatest miracles are recorded with as little 
of doubt or wonder in the writer, and with as little suspicion of the reader's 
incredulity as the most ordinary incidents. A manner as unlike that of imr 
postors as of enthusiasts ; a manner in which these writers are altogether sin- 
gular ; and I will add, a manner which can on no supposition be tolerably ac- 
counted for, but that of the truth, and not of the truth only, but of the notori- 
ety of the events which they relate." — Diss, on Miracles, v. i. p. 131. Edin- 
burgh, 1797. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



199 



B. and C. officers of the government, and other well 
known persons, whose names are mentioned — he would 
not adopt a course like this, because he would know 
that he was famishing you, in these particulars, with 
the means of proving the falsehood of his story. He 
would, therefore, cautiously shun all particulars, and 
give his relation in general terms, which would the 
better prevent an exposure of the imposition. This is 
the course universally adopted by deceivers of this char- 
acter ; names and places are left blank, and no references 
or allusions are made which would be likely to lead to 
a detection of the fraud. Not so, however, with the 
writers of the Gospel history ; they give, in all their state- 
ments, the where, the when, the why ; and they associ- 
ate w r ith them numerous circumstances and particulars 
which would serve the opposer to cross-question them, 
and expose any deception which might belong to their 
story. 

4. A single example, that of the resurrection, will 
suffice to show this. In the brief account which the 
Evangelists have written of this memorable event, there 
are the following distinct particulars, each one of which, 
if the relation were false, was sufficient to have proved 
it so. 1. The burial in the sepulchre of Joseph of Ari- 
mathea, well known for his wealth, and as a member of 
the court of the Sanhedrim. 2. Mention of the chief 
priests and elders, who, of course, were equally well 
known. 3. Pontius Pilate, the governor. 4. The Ro- 
man soldiers. 5. The guarding the sepulchre. 6. 
The earthquake ; and perhaps we may add the three 



200 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

hour's darkness that overspread the land, though this 
strictly belonged to the crucifixion. 7. The place — Je- 
rusalem. 8. The time — 4he celebration of the Pass* 
over, when Jews were crowding to the city from all 
quarters. 9. The report of the Pharisees, that the 
body was stolen. Here ate not fewer than nine or ten 
particulars in this single account, every one of which 
is altogether incompatible with an attempt at decep- 
tion-— every one of which is sufficient of itself to have 
condemned the writer's whole history, had no such 
event taken place. Now we ask the candid unbeliever 
if he can bring himself to credit the supposition that 
these men could have been so blind, if they were telling 
falsehood, as to have left open — nay, worse than this, 
to have opened themselves ten different channels, by 
each of which their falsehood could have been exposed 1 
How easy to have gone to Pilate and ascertained wheth- 
er he gave the Jews a guard, or whether he ever had 
any thing to do with such a matter ! And, had there 
been no earthquake or darkness, the people would cer- 
tainly have known it, and would have written falsehood 
upon the story at the very outset. And so we might 
go on to the end of the cataloguej and it would be seen 
chat if, not only the relation as a whole had been false, 
but if one of these particulars had been false, it would 
have destroyed the credibility of the relation. In this 
view of the matter, therefore, we repeat, that this cir* 
cumstantiality throughout the Gospel histories, is an 
evident proof of their truth ; for no man, who was tell* 
ing what he knew had no foundation in fact, would 
connect with it numerous particulars, each one of 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 201 

which would be alone sufficient to expose the false- 
hood.* 



* Mr. Gibbon says, in his comments upon the supposed miraculous cross of 
Constantine, that " the precise circumstances of time and place always serve 
to detect falsehood, or establish truth ." Decline and Fall, c. xx. We won- 
der how he disposes of "the precise circumstances of time and place," and ma- 
ny other precise circumstances, with which the Gospel histories abound. If 
they i( always serve to detect falsehood," and these histories are falsehoods, 
why was it not detected on the spot, and the whole scheme crushed in embryo ? 
It seems to us that this one acknowledgment of Mr. Gibbon places the 
Christian records utterly beyond the reach of his " solemn sneer." 

14 



SECTION IIL 



ARGUMENT FROM THE HONESTY OF THE WRITERS IN RECORDING THEIR 
OWN FAULTS. 

1. A strong argument for the truth of the Gospel 
history is found in the honesty of the writers in record- 
ing their own faults, and the faults of their brethren. 
There are numerous instances of this in almost every 
book of the* New Testament, and the great plainness of 
speech which is sometimes employed is truly surprising. 
Now w^e say that the frank and open manner in which 
these things are stated, carries along with it an air of 
reality that is almost irresistible, and seems to force up- 
on the mind the conviction that they have recorded the 
events of their history as they actually took place, with- 
out fear or favor. A few examples will be sufficient to 
illustrate this point to the satisfaction, we should hope, 
of even the most unwilling mind. 

2. In the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, Luke has giv- 
en the account of two disputes among the disciples, one 
of which, that between Paul and Barnabas, had not a lit- 
tle of severity in it. The words of the historian areas 
follows : — " And Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go 
again and visit our brethren in every city where we 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 203 

have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they 
do, And Barnabas determined to take with them John, 
whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not 
good to take him with them, who departed from them 
from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. 
And the contention was so sharp between them, that 
they departed asunder one from the other. And so 
Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; and 
Paul chose Silas, and departed." There are two par- 
ticulars here which invite our attention. First, the 
writer mentions the defection of John from his duty, 
his refusal to go to the work of the ministry in Pam- 
phylia, which is surely no honorable notice of this fel- 
low laborer, and not much to his commendation. Sec- 
ond, the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas on ac- 
count of this circumstance. Paul was unwilling to 
take John, because he had once before deserted him, 
while Barnabas was exceedingly earnest that he should 
accompany them. They cannot agree, and the result is 
that they are involved in a contention so sharp and se- 
vere that they separate from each other ! And this un- 
happy dispute among the immediate followers of Christ, 
who had exhorted them with his dying breath, as it 
were, to love one another as he had loved them. This 
bitter strife was between those who were teachers of a 
religion, the very soul of which was brotherly kindness, 
forbearance, and charity. And, strange as it may ap- 
pear, the history of this given by one of their own num- 
ber in the first records of the Christian church ! We 
ask if this looks like imposture — if this is giving the 
bright side of things, while every circumstance reflect- 



204 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



ing upon their own characters is kept out of sight 7 
Who does not see that there is nothing like imposition 
or deception here ? who does not see that this honest 
statement of their failings carries upon its very face the 
impress of truth, and testifies in so many words that the 
writers had no intention of deceiving, or of stating any 
thing but facts whether honorable, or otherwise, to those 
concerned ? 

3. A remarkable example of the honesty and plain- 
ness of the first teachers in this respect is found in 
Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, at the sixth chap- 
ter. " Be not deceived," says he, " neither fornicators, 
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers 
of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, 
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall in- 
herit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you" 
&c. This is most assuredly a severe sentence, and it 
could not have been a very pleasant one to the Corinth- 
ians. They are told without the least preface or quali- 
fication that they had been fornicators, thieves, extor- 
tioners, revilers, drunkards, and the like. Now, it ap- 
pears to us that he who states facts of this character, 
cannot be set down as one who would wish to impose 
a false history or relation upon his fellow men. This 
frankness of speech, this severe honesty, seems enough 
to preclude the supposition of any thing like an attempt 
or a desire to deceive. And it may be well to say here 
that this very circumstance was seized upon by the 
earlier opposers of the Christian religion. The well- 
known Porphyry, a violent enemy of the faith, who 
wrote in the year 270, notices the contention of Paul 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 205 

and Barnabas ; and the example in question was em- 
ployed against the Christians by the emperor Julian in 
the treatise composed by him A.D. 361. After citing 
the passage given above, he sneeringly adds, " I presume 
Paul was not so void of shame, as to send them such 
reproaches in his letter to them, if he had not known 
them to be just. These are things which he writes of 
his disciples, and to themselves." Such is the conclu- 
sion of Julian, and we agree with him perfectly, that 
these charges were true, and the open manner in which 
they are stated goes to show that the New Testament 
writers recorded only facts, and concealed no circum- 
stance merely because they thought it might have an 
unfavorable bearing upon themselves or friends. And 
it is well worthy of notice that the preservation of this 
letter by the Corinthian church, containing as it does 
such startling comments upon their characters, is con- 
clusive proof of their respect for the authority of Paul, 
and their reverence of whatever came from him.* 

4. Very like to this is that which Paul says in the 
third chapter of his letter to Titus. " For we ourselves 
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving 
divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, 
hateful, and hating one another." Here is a plain, un- 
equivocal confession that they were once of the most 
wicked and vicious character, indulging in all manner 
of iniquity, and serving the worst of fleshly lusts and 
passions. Does it look much like trumpeting their 
own perfections, or varnishing over their faults and 



* See also 1 Cor. v. vi . and vij. 



206 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

vices ? There was no call for this acknowledgment, 
no necessity for this humiliating statement ; they might 
have omitted it, they might have been silent. But this 
does not seem to have occurred to them ; they do not ap- 
pear even to have thought of concealing any thing, be- 
cause, if known, it might be prejudicial to them or 
their cause. They honestly state the truth, whether for 
or against themselves, without stopping to inquire how 
it may seem to others, or what effect it may produce. 

5. We shall select one more instance, and with it 
close our remarks on this particular. When Christ 
was betrayed by Judas, and the multitude came out to 
take him, the historian records the sad story of his 
brethren's desertion of their Master, in the following 
words: — "Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled." 
How little to their credit to leave him thus at the very 
hour in which they should have stood by him, and 
proved their fidelity. And how true to the facts must 
the Gospel writers have been, how conscientious, to 
have recorded a circumstance so unworthy of them, and 
so directly at variance with their professions of faithful- 
ness. But this is not all, we have a farther account of 
Peter, He was charged with being a follower of Jesus, 
he denied it without hesitation, affirming that he knew 
not what they meant. Here was falsehood ! A second 
time it was said to him that he was with Jesus of Naz- 
areth, and he denied with an oath, saying, " I do not 
know the man." Here was falsehood with an oath! 
Once more it was said to him, " Surely thou art also 
one of them ; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Then be- 
gan he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 207 

man." Here again was falsehood, with oaths, with 
cursing and swearing ! Now can any man bring him- 
self to believe that if the writers of the Gospel histories 
had been impostors, they would have invented such 
stories as these 7 If they had wished to deceive the 
world, and to palm off a religion of their own making, 
would they have taken this method to have recom- 
mended it? Would they have represented its first 
teachers, yea. themselves indeed, as deserting their 
Master like cowards, and one of their number, who had 
professed great attachment, as swearing and cursing in 
his wrath against those who told him that he was a fol- 
lower of Jesus ? We ask if this looks reasonable, if 
this is the usual way with impostors ? 

6. If the whole history is invention, why did they 
not invent better facts 1 why did they not tell a story 
more to their own credit, and in commendation of 
the religion they sought to establish ? It was as easy 
to forge a history of this sort, surely ; and it is much 
more likely that they would have done it, than that they 
should have forged the one we now have. Men who 
would thus defame their own characters, who would 
get up statements most prejudicial to themselves, and 
having a tendency to retard, instead of advancing their 
cause, seem to us to be strange impostors indeed. 
When a man lies, it is generally for, not against his 
interests ; and if one makes a statement which is plain- 
ly opposed to his interests and known pursuits, and per- 
sists in that statement, the conclusion is almost irresist- 
ible, that it is true, otherwise he would not make it 
This is precisely the case with the New Testament 



208 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

writers : they have given us a history, and in this his- 
tory they have made certain statements which give no 
very pleasant coloring to their own characters; they 
plainly and frankly acknowledge their faults, and with- 
out hesitation record as a part of their relation, events 
in which they and their companions appear to the 
greatest disadvantage. They conceal nothing, they 
make no attempts to evade these unpleasant facts, they 
offer no excuse for their conduct, but speak right on 
like honest men, and leave the reader to make his own 
comments. This, no impostor ever has done, or would 
do ; and we say therefore that this characteristic of the 
Gospel histories is clear evidence of their truth. 



SECTION IV. 



ARGUMENT FROM THE FACT THAT MANY OF THE EVENTS ARE PRECISELY 
WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT UNDER THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES. 

1. Any one who is acquainted to any considerable 
extent with the history of the times in which Chris- 
tianity made its appearance, will discover in many of 
the events and particulars related by the Gospel writers 
something so very natural, so perfectly consonant to the 
circumstances, that a conviction of their truth irresisti- 
bly, at the first glance, forces itself upon the mind, 
This feature of the narrative is observable not in the 
more important events alone, but is seen inwoven* with 
the smaller and, so to speak, the more trifling mat- 
ters that are incidentally mentioned by the historians. 
It is the object of the present section to place before the 
reader a few examples of this character, that he may 
judge for himself whether there is not a remarkable ap- 
pearance of reality about them, and whether they do 
not furnish an evidence of the truth of the story. 

2. The first example to which w r e shall invite atten- 
tion is that recorded in Acts xviii. 12 — 17. "And when 
Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insur- 
rection with one accord against Paul, and brought him 
to the judgment seat, saying, This fellow persuadeth 



210 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY* 

men to worship God contrary to the law. And when 
Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto 
the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong, or wicked lewd- 
ness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with 
you : but if it be a question of words and names, and of 
your law, look ye to it ; for I will be no judge of such 
matters. And he drove them from the judgment seat. 
Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of 
the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. 
And Gallio cared for none of these things.' 5 

3. The circumstances here mentioned are perfectly 
natural. Gallio was the Roman deputy or governor of 
the province ; and in common with the rest of his coun- 
trymen entertained a most contemptible opinion of the 
Jews, of their religion, and their conduct. He la- 
bored under the same mistake that was made by all the 
heathen of that and the succeeding age, or the former 
part of it, that the Jews and Christians were only differ- 
ent sects of the same faith, and therefore makes no dis- 
tinction between J:hem. How consistent with these facts 
is his conduct at the judgment seat. " If your quarrel be 
one of words and names, or of your law, look to it 
yourselves ; for I will be no judge of such matters." 
This is exactly the language which a Roman governor 
would adopt on such an occasion : he had no thought of 
troubling his head about their disputes of names and 
words, or about their law; if they could not agree 
among themselves, it was their own lookout, he had 
business of more importance to attend to, than their re- 
ligious quarrels. And when they began to contend 
with each other, and took Sosthenes and beat him, it is 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 211 



said, " And Gallio cared for none of these things." Just 
as we should suppose it would be : " Let them strive, if 
they will, about their religion, it is none of my concern." 
Here is a perfect indifference as to their affairs, and an 
utter contempt for themselves, which, as before observed, 
was ever the feeling of a Roman for the Jews. Is there 
not something very like truth in the notice of this in- 
cident ? 

4. Another example is found in Acts xxv. Paul had 
been arrested; and the Jews desired Festus, the Roman 
governor of Judea, to send Paul to Jerusalem for trial ; 
for they had failed to bring over Felix, the former gov- 
ernor. Accordingly, when Paul was brought before Fes- 
tus, and the Jews had accused him, and he had denied 
the charges,- — " Festus," says the historian, " willing 
to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, 
Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of 
these things before me? (He was then at Cesarea.) 
Then said Paul, I stand at Cassar's judgment seat, 
where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I done 
no wrong, as thou very well knowest. For if I be an 
offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, 
I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things 
whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto 
them. I appeal unto Csesar." This is a relation of 
what we should look for under the given circumstan- 
ces. Paul knew very well that if he went to Jerusalem, 
and there, surrounded with powerful and deadly foes, 
should be tried for his life, there was no safety for him, 
his condemnation was certain. He had before his eyes 
the fate of his Master, who, though the governor con- 



212 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

fessed he found no cause of death in him, was neverthe- 
less most cruelly murdered ; and he knew that to go up 
to Jerusalem to be tried, was to set the signature to his 
own death warrant. The moment, therefore, this was 
proposed by Festus, he replied, " I appeal unto Csesar." 
This was the privilege of every Roman citizen ; he had 
a right, when he thought himself wronged, to appeal to 
Csesar, or the emperor, and the governor was obliged 
to send him to Rome. Paul knew this, and knew that 
it would put him out of the power of the Jews, and ac- 
cordingly appealed. Does not this very natural state- 
ment look like a case of actual occurrence 1 

5. In the same chapter we have a corroboration of 
the first example. Festus, in telling the story to Agrip- 
pa, says that he commanded Paul to be brought before 
him, and adds, "Against whom, when the accusers stood 
up, they brought none accusation of such things as I 
supposed ; but had certain questions against him of their 
own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, 
whom Paul affirmed to be alive." We confess we nev- 
er met with any thing that looks more like truth than this 
statement. One cannot imagine any language more 
perfectly suited to the circumstances, than this used by 
Festus. He had just come into Judea, as governor — 
he finds Paul a prisoner — the Jews beset him to send 
Paul to Jerusalem for trial — he proposes first to hear 
something about the case where he is, at Cesarea — Paul 
is brought forth, and the Jews accuse him — Festus is 
puzzled ; he expected to hear him charged with some 
crime; instead of that, he hears a long story about some- 
thing else — but wishing to please the Jews, over whom 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



213 



he is placed, he conceals his feelings, and asks Paul if 
he will go to Jerusalem for trial. But mark the differ- 
ence when he tells the matter to Agrippa ; he speaks 
out his real feelings — "they had certain questions against 
him of their own superstitions, and of one Jesus, which 
was dead, whom Paul affirmed to he alive." Can any- 
thing be more perfectly natural than this ? There is a 
contemptuous sneering in these words, " their own su- 
perstitions." Like Gallio he knew nothing, and cared 
nothing about their superstitions, though he concealed 
it at the time, because he wished to make himself pop- 
ular with the Jews. And observe how he speaks of the 
principal matter of dispute— "of one Jesus" — he knew 
nothing about this Jesus, but that the Jews said he was 
dead, and Paul affirmed he was alive, and it was a 
matter of perfect indifference to him which was right. 
Now it seems to us that if ever there was a statement 
which carried upon its face the marks of honest truth, 
this most assuredly is the one. 

6. An example of like character is recorded in Acts 
xvii. 32. Paul was at Athens — he had encountered the 
Epicureans and Stoics, two sects of philosophers, and 
had disputed with them; but they, being desirous to 
hear him farther, brought him to the Areopagus, where 
he delivered his celebrated discourse. These philoso- 
phers heard him very patiently until he came to speak 
of the resurrection ; but " when," says the historian, 
"they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mock- 
ed ; and others said, We will hear thee again of this 
matter." Now we have only to remember that both 
the Stoics and Epicureans denied the resurrection, and 



214 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



that the latter thought it impossible even for the gods to 
effect it, and we shall at once see how natural it is to 
suppose that these proud spirits would mock at Paul for 
preaching it. Had not the historian stated this fact, we 
should have reasoned in ourselves that they would have 
mocked, when the Apostle came to this part of his dis- 
course. They looked upon it as supremely ridiculous, 
and would of course laugh at it. It is like this — we 
should hear a man tell his adventures very patiently, 
until he came to talk about witches or ghosts, and when 
he affirmed he had really seen these, we should laugh 
at him — we should mock. Well, the Epicureans and 
Stoics regarded the resurrection in the same light that 
we do witchcraft and ghost-stories. How natural then 
that they should mock when Paul came to this. It is 
just what we should expect, and the mention of it is an 
evidence of the truth of the history. 

7. At the end of the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, 
we have another instance. Jesus went into the syna- 
gogue and taught them, insomuch that they were aston- 
ished. And they said, " Whence hath this man this wis- 
dom, and these mighty works ? Is not this the carpen- 
ter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his 
brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? 
And his sisters, are they not all with us?- Whence then 
hath this man all these things? And they were offend- 
ed in him." Now this is in perfect agreement with 
human nature. "Is not this the carpenter's son?" 
And shall we be taught by him 1 How comes it that 
he knows so much more than we ? Did he not grow 
up among us with his brothers and sisters ? And are 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 215 

not his father and mother our neighbors 1 Pray then 
shall he take upon himself to be our teacher ? We will 
not endure it. " And they were offended in him." 
Have we not examples of this same feeling every day 1 
How perfectly consonant, then, with what we know of 
the human heart, that these people should feel their pride 
wounded at being taught by a "carpenter's son." And 
it seems to us that the very simplicity of this account, 
and its being so like what we should imagine would be 
the conduct of the people, are strong proof of its reality. 

8. We shall now notice a few instances of a less ob- 
vious character, but perhaps the more convincing on 
this account. The first which we shall mention may 
be found in John xi. 36. Jesus was on his way to the 
grave of Lazarus, Mary and Martha met him, and 
" when Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also 
weeping which came with her, he groaned in spirit, and 
was troubled, and wept. Then said the Jews, Behold 
how he loved him." These last are the w r ords to 
which we especially refer, " Then said the Jews, Be- 
hold, how he loved him." If the writer had forged his 
history, and designed to introduce the miracle of raising 
Lazarus to support it, he would not have been likely 
to have introduced this particular ; he would have 
gone on directly to his object, the miracle. The intro- 
duction of this remark by the way plainly shows that it 
was made, or otherwise the writer would not have 
thought of it. It does not belong to the miracle — it 
makes no part of the story — it seems to have been men- 
tioned, not because it was necessary, but because it was 



216 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

true. It was an incidental Temark of the Jews ; the wri- 
ter happens to recollect it, and therefore mentions it. 

9. The same remarks are applicable to the next 
verse : — " And some of them said, Could not this man, 
which, opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that 
even this man should not have died ? " In this there is 
an undesigned allusion to another miracle ; it does not 
appear to be forced in — it is perfectly natural, and just 
such an observation as we should expect from those who 
had witnessed the miracle mentioned. If the history 
was forged, the resurrection of Lazarus doubtless made 
a part of the writer's plan ; but this speech of the Jews 
could not, for it had no connection with the event. It 
seems to us to be one of those many particulars in the Gos- 
pel histories which never would have been thought of, if 
they had not been true. The object of the writer is to 
give an account of the raising of Lazarus ; as he pro- 
ceeds, this observation of theby-standers appears to have 
come into his mind* and he notes it down as he goes 
along. 

10. In chapter xx of Acts we find another example. 
Paul had been preaching at some considerable length* 
and the writer in his account of it takes occasion to say 
"there were many lights in the upper chamber," where 
they were assembled. He had already said that it was 
near midnight, which fact presupposes there were lights, 
and the observation seems to be made simply because 
the writer chanced to recollect the circumstance. An 
instance is found in chapter xxvi. 29. — Paul pleading 
before Agrippa forces him to exclaim, " Almost thou 
persuadest me to be a Christian/"' Paul replies, "I 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 217 

would to God that not only thou, but also all who hear 
me this day> were both almost and altogether such as I 
am, except these bonds." This last, " except these 
bonds," is a singular expression, and is called forth by 
the chain upon Paul's hands, as it was the custom to 
place them upon the Roman prisoners. We say this 
is a very peculiar expression, and it would seem that it 
never would have been thought of, had it not actually 
been made under the circumstances mentioned. Had 
the history been forged or invented, this idea would 
not have occurred to the writer ; it is plainly the off- 
spring of reality, and goes to confirm the truth of the 
narrative. In Acts ix. 43, it is written of Peter—" And 
it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with 
one Simon a tanner." Would the person who compos- 
ed this narrative, if it were all an invention, have added 
that Simon was a tanner? It seems to us that the inci- 
dental mention of this fact looks very much like truth. 
There was no call for it if it was all fiction ; it has noth- 
ing to do with the objects of the history ; it appears to 
have been noticed without any design, not because it had 
any connection with the story, but because this was the 
fact. 

11. Once more, and we have done. In Matthew 
xviii. 28, it is said that Christ was led from the presence 
of the high priest to the place of trial as follows: — -"Then 
led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judg- 
ment: and it was early." Now, this last circumstance 
has no connection with the portion of history where it 
is found ; there is no reason why he should have men- 
tioned that it was early. It does not help us to under* 
15 



218 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

stand the history at all; the story is just as intelligible 
without it ; and there seems to be no other cause for its 
mention than that the writer recollected that it was early, 
and so noted the fact. In the account of the resurrec- 
tion by John, we have the following: — " Then cometh Si- 
mon Peter, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the 
linen clothes lie; and the napkin that was about his 
head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped to- 
gether in a place by itself Now, would any one be 
likely to invent this circumstance of the napkin's being 
wrapped up in a place by itself? It does not seem so 
to us, and it is hardly possible that it should to any 
candid mind. There is no cause for this statement un- 
less it was true; it has nothing to do with the narra- 
tive ; it was a matter of no consequence whether the 
napkin was by itself, or with the rest of the clothes ; it 
is altogether an unimportant fact, and seems to have 
been mentioned only because it was a fact. 

12. In concluding this section, we have only to ask 
any fair-minded man to look at these few examples cf 
undesignedness in the notice of small particulars, and 
inquire of himself if they are the marks of imposture or 
fiction. Yea, let him ask if they do not carry with 
them an air of truth and reality. It appears to us that 
they constitute one of the strongest internal evidences 
of the authenticity of the Gospel history, of the actual 
occurrence of the events mentioned therein. They 
are not what are denominated striking proofs, but they 
are convincing ; they are not the blustering assertions 
of the writer that he is telling the truth, but they are 
■retired, and must be brought out by careful examina- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 219 

tion. For this, however, they are the more valuable, 
and fully repay the labor of search, in strengthening 
the conviction of the honesty of the writer, and of the 
truth of what he relates. 



SECTION V. 



the Facts mentioned in the new testament, if false, "Woulb 
have led to immediate exposure. 

1. In this section we shall bring forward some ex- 
amples of events recorded in the Gospel histories, which, 
had they never taken place, would have exposed the 
fraud as soon as these histories were published, and 
Christianity would have been smothered in its very 
birth. The evidence gathered from this source we re- 
gard as of great importance in our inquiry, and it is 
hoped that the reader w T ill give his undivided attention 
to it, and weigh with candor the inferences which shall 
be drawn from it. 

2e The first example we shall offer is that found in 
the history of the raising of Lazarus, and the son of the 
widow of Nain. John xi. Luke vii. We take them 
together, because they are of the same character, and 
what is applicable to one, is equally so to the other. 
Now, if the statement made in relation to these two in- 
dividuals was false, how easy it would have been to 
prove it so. If no such miracles had ever been wrought, 
no one could have known any thing in relation to 
them; but if they were wrought, then thousands must 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 22i 

have known it, and have been acquainted with the cir- 
cumstances. Suppose then, when the Gospels were 
published, some one takes them up, and reads the ac- 
count of these two persons restored to life. He doubts 
the truth of it, perhaps, and immediately proceeds to 
make inquiries. He goes to the neighborhood in 
which they are said to have been performed ; he asks of 
the people there if they had seen any thing of the kind ; 
they tell him, No. He asks if they knew any one who 
did see these things ? They answer, No. Again he 
asks if they had ever heard of any person's being raised 
from the dead in their vicinity ? They still answer, 
No. He would conclude, after this investigation, that 
the history was false, Now, is it not reasonable to sup- 
pose that some one — yea, that hundreds would have 
made these inquiries in relation to such remarkable 
events, had there been any doubt of their truth % And 
is it not plain that, had they been false, the wicked im- 
position would have been exposed at once, and the just 
condemnation of fraud and lying been fixed upon the 
writers? And would not their histories, containing 
such abominable falsehoods, have been given to the 
winds on their first appearance, instead of being be- 
lieved by thousands who lived on the very spot where 
these miracles are said to have been performed 1 

3. Another instance of bold statement which, if false, 
might have been proved so at the outset, is the feeding 
of five thousand men, beside women and children, with 
five small loaves and two fishes; and afterwards the 
feeding another multitude of four thousand men with 
women and children, with seven loaves and a few small 



222 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

fishes. Matt. xiv. xv. What we wish the reader to ob- 
serve here, is the number of witnesses that are honestly 
brought forward. There are in these two cases nine 
thousand men, and if we allow the women and children 
to be two thirds as many, we have at least fifteen thou- 
sand witnesses to this miraculous event. How easy 
for any one to have ascertained whether the history 
was true or false, when such a multitude were associ- 
ated with it. If the number was exaggerated, so much 
the worse for the writer — he gave the people a right to 
believe that it was very large, and if it was not, his ve- 
racity suffered accordingly. But suppose the whole 
story was false ; let us see how such a statement would 
operate. The writer told the people that there were at 
least fifteen thousand who had witnessed the miracle, 
and had partaken of its benefits. Of course, it must 
have been a common talk, known far and near. Some 
one doubts the miracle, he does not believe that so many 
were fed. " Nevertheless," he says to himself, " if it 
be true, I can soon find it out, for if fifteen thousand 
were present, I can readily find one, or two, or twenty 
who were of the number." He accordingly makes in- 
quiries, but is utterly baffled, he cannot find a single 
person who witnessed the miracles, and what is worse 5 
not one who ever heard of them before the book came 
out. Thus the fifteen thousand witnesses have entirely 
vanished ! 

4. This is precisely the situation of one who should 
have doubted the narrative in question at the time the 
Gospels were published, and this precisely the result 
which would have followed his inquiries. And does 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 223 

not the reader perceive how soon and how easily false- 
hood would have been written upon these histories, had 
no such miracles as those named been performed ? 
And we ask any reasonable man if it is a supposable 
case, that these writers would have associated such an 
immense number with the story of these miracles, had 
they been untrue, and thus have furnished their oppo- 
sers with the means of proving them liars 1 There 
was no call for such a multitude, unless this were the 
actual number. If the whole was invention, five hun- 
dred would have done as well, and much better, — for it 
would, at this amount, have been a wonderful miracle, 
while at the same time it would have diminished by 
thirty fold the possibility of exposure, or of proving the 
story false. The only conclusion then, is that this great 
number was stated because it was true, and with this 
number stated, the miracle must have been a fact, or it 
would certainly have been proved a falsehood, and the 
books have been rejected as an imposition. 

5. The next example to which we would refer is that 
of Sergius Paulus, governor of the Island of Cyprus, 
in the Mediterranean. Acts xiii. Speaking of a certain 
sorcerer, the historian says, he " was with the deputy of 
the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man ; who called 
for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word 
of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer, withstood them, 
seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith." On 
this account we are informed that Paul rebuked him, 
and thus spake " And now, behold, the hand of the 
Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing 
the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on 



224 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

him a mist and a darkness; and he went about, seeking 
some one to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, 
when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished 
at the doctrine of the Lord." Here we are told that 
the deputy or governor, Sergius, embraced the faith, and 
became a Christian. If this was false, how quickly it 
could have been proved so. Sergius was a man of 
note, a Roman governor, and of necessity generally 
known. If he had not become a Christian the state- 
ment of the historian would immediately have been ex- 
posed as a deliberate untruth, and the character of the 
governor cleared of the charge; for be it remembered, 
it was a crime then to become a Christian. This, how- 
ever, never was done, and it is a most happy, and 
somewhat singular circumstance, that the emperor Juli- 
an, the well-known enemy of Christianity in the year 
361, mentions the fact of the conversion of Sergius 
Paulus, and admits its truth, adding that he and one or 
two others, were the only men of note who were con- 
verted in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius ; for he is 
careful to confine his assertion within a short space. 
It will be seen from this, that the conversion of Sergius 
was a fact so well known that it could not be disputed. 
If then the history is true in this matter, it must be true 
in the miracle, for this is the cause assigned why the 
deputy believed. The miracle and conversion are one 
story, and if the effect is true, the cause must be. 

6. We shall mention one other example---the darkness 
attending the crucifixion, and the earthquake which 
took place at the resurrection. Matt, xxvii. 45. xxviii. 2. 
These are palpable, tangible facts, of which all who 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 225 

lived at the time in Judea, and especially all those at 
Jerusalem, were competent to judge. Now there either 
was, or was not, a supernatural darkness at the cruci- 
fixion, and there was, or was not, an earthquake at the 
resurrection ; if there was, then the history is true,— if 
there was not, we shall be unable to account for the ex- 
istence of Christianity. Suppose the whole story of the 
death and resurrection of Christ to be a forgery — is it 
not plain that the moment the disciples put forth their 
pretended histories, their enemies would have pro- 
nounced them the basest of deceivers 1 Is it not plain 
that the people every where would have known the false- 
hood of this tale about the darkness and the earthquake 1 
Would they not say, " This is evidently a most palpa- 
ble imposition ; we know nothing about these matters, 
we witnessed no such events, we never have heard a 
word about this three hours' darkness, or this remarka- 
ble earthquake. And here is a story about the veil of 
the temple being rent in twain from top to bottom. 
Now we know no such thing ever happened, and these 
men must be very stupid, or very mad, to suppose we 
should believe their books with these barefaced false- 
hoods upon their front." We ask the unbeliever if the 
people would not have reasoned in this way, had these 
statements been false, had there been no darkness, no 
earthquake, no rending of the temple veil? And 
would not the Gospel histories, with the lie written up- 
on their faces, have been rejected at once by the people, 
and the whole scheme exploded at the outset ? 

7. Will it be said now, to avoid this difficulty, that 
the histories may have been published long after the 



226 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

death of the people who lived at the time these things 
are said to have happened ? But this objection comes 
too late ; it has already been established that they were 
written by the disciples of Christ, and such an assertion 
is all in vain until the chain of history before given is 
broken and destroyed. Beside, if admitted, it avails 
nothing. For if the books be all fiction, whenever they 
were published that would be the first notice the people 
would have of these events. Would they not then ask 
— " How is it that we never heard of these things before? 
— why did not our fathers mention them in some way 
— and why is there no tradition in relation to them ? 
Surely the want of these looks rather suspicious. If 
these things really happened, it is not a little singular 
that the world should never have heard of them till this 
late period." Would not this be the train of thought 
into which they would be led ? Should not we reason 
thus, if a book were published now of a like character 
under like circumstances ? 

8. But we have something farther to say on this 
head. The reader will recollect that the historian in- 
forms us that when the resurrection took place, the 
watch were terrified, and some went into the city, and 
reported the matter unto the chief priests. When these 
had heard it, he says they gave money to the soldiers, 
and told them to say that " His disciples came by night 
and stole him away while we slept." To this he adds, 
" they took the money, and did as they were taught ; 
and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews 
until this day." Matt, xxviii. Now, it is believed that 
the reader will discover at once from this last sentence 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 227 

the predicament in which the writers would have in- 
volved themselves had their narrative been mere in- 
vention. Suppose the whole history here mere fiction 
— the resurrection itself, the earthquake, the fright of 
the soldiers, and the story they were hired to tell — sup- 
pose none of these ever happened. Now the Gospels, 
whenever they were published, whether ten, fifty, or 
five hundred years after the time at which these things 
are said to have taken place, state that a story was then, 
at the time of their publication, commonly reported 
among the Jews, that the body of Jesus was stolen by 
his disciples. But if there was no resurrection, of 
course no such story could have been reported among 
the Jews ; and the falsehood of the Gospels would have 
been demonstrated on the spot. And how stupid must 
these writers have been, if impostors, to have made a 
statement which every body knew was false, and which 
must so plainly seal the condemnation of their histories. 
Can any man bring himself to believe that he who had 
ingenuity enough to invent the Gospel history, would 
have been so blind as not to have seen the bearing of 
this observation ? 

9. A brief illustration will show the importance of 
this argument. Suppose a person were to write a book 
pretending to be a history of certain events which hap- 
pened some two hundred years ago in this country. 
Suppose he state in this book that one who had been 
put to death, rose again from the dead — that our fore- 
fathers who lived then, refused to believe it, and affirm- 
ed that his body had been stolen by his friends — and 
finally, that this story of the stealing of the body is com- 



228 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



monly reported among us at this day. Should we not 
pronounce this pretended history false, the moment it 
appeared? We know that no such story is reported 
among us, and that we never heard of such a story be- 
fore we found it in this book. It is perfectly impossible, 
therefore, that such a history could be palmed upon us as 
true. Now then we have only to make the application 
to the Gospel, and we shall see that it was as perfectly 
impossible that they could have been received, if they 
contained a statement which every one knew to be false. 
The conclusion then is certain, that this story must 
have been in existence at the time they were written, 
and must have been commonly reported among the Jews. 
The result to which this brings us is very plain. If 
this story was reported among the Jews, the history of 
the resurrection is true, for had there been no resurrec- 
tion, there could have been no such story. The very 
existence, therefore, of this report presupposes the fact 
of the resurrection, otherwise it could never have had 
an existence ; for there can be no effect without a cause. 

10. The preceding are some of the many examples* 
of a like character which might be adduced to show that, 
had the Gospel history been false, the facts mentioned 
in it would have led to an immediate exposure that 
would have destroyed Christianity in its infancy. And 



* Other examples maybe found in the slaughter of the infants by Herod — the 
attempt of the people to make Christ king — the gift of tongues on the day of 
Pentecost — the conversion of the 3000 in one day — the earthquake at Philippi — 
Paul's defence of himself before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, &c. &c. These 
are public matters, and the writers would not have dared to have stated them 
had they not been true ; for if false, they could have been proved so, and the 
credit of the history destroyed at once. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



229 



we do say, without fear of contradiction, that it is wholly 
incredible the New Testament, if it be a forgery, should 
contain statements of such a character as those named, 
because the writers must have known certainly that the 
moment their books were published the falsehood of these 
stories would be manifest. And we do farther say that 
their being received and believed at all can be accounted 
for on no supposition whatever, but that of the truth, 
and not only the truth, but the general notoriety of the 
events of which they give an account. Had they been 
false, the men must have been mad to have written them; 
had they been false, they would have been universa]ly 
rejected as soon as they made their appearance, and 
Christianity would have been known now, if known at 
all, as a weak and clumsy imposition, which was crush- 
ed as soon as it had birth. But since it was not so, 
since these histories were believed by hundreds and 
thousands who lived at the time they were published, 
and must have known whether they were true or false — 
the only, the necessary and irresistible conclusion is, 
that they are true. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH OF THE GOS- 
PEL HISTORY. 

SECTION I. 

ARGUMENT FROM THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OF THE EARLY OPPOSERS 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 

1. It is a somewhat singular circumstance, that un- 
believers of the present day are not staggered at the ad- 
missions of the primitive opposers of the Christian faith. 
They do not, however, seem to know — or if they know, 
they do not consider these things. Christianity is op- 
posed in this age by rejecting, at one bold sweep, the 
whole history, and affirming it to be all a fiction. Yea, 
those of whom we speak do not hesitate, in the unbound- 
ed confidence inspired by their remarkable acquisitions 
in philosoplry and logic, to declare that no such person 
as Jesus Christ ever lived — that he was wholly a mytho- 
logical character, and that the Gospel history is nothing 
but a religious romance I* The reader will perhaps 



* We earnestly recommend to these friends of reason to suspend their philo- 
sophical studies for a season, and bring down their soaring thoughts to the 
study of history, and we doubt not they will be benefited by it 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 231 

be a little surprised at this recklessness, when he learns 
that the opponents of Christianity who lived in the first 
ages, did not dream of making such wild assertions; 
that those who lived just after the disciples and Apos- 
tles, never thought of denying that Christ was a real 
person, or that the Gospel history was true, although 
they unquestionably had as credible sources of informa- 
tion on these points as their more advanced followers of 
our day. 

2. The argument which is based upon these ac- 
knowledgments of the enemies of Christianity who 
lived so near the time of Christ, is certainly one of great 
weight in our inquiry, and should be regarded accord- 
ingly. When we say enemies of Christianity, in this 
connection, we do not mean simply the heathen, or those 
who did not embrace the religion of the Gospel, but 
those who labored against it, who composed books for 
the express purpose of confuting this new doctrine, and 
who were men of learning and extensive information. 
Their testimony is, then, of consequence, and, in our 
view of evidence, goes very far to prove the truth of the 
Gospel history. 

3. The first witness to be summoned is Julian. He 
became emperor of Rome in the year 361. He had 
once been a Christian, but afterwards renounced it, and 
became a steady and persevering enemy of the religion 
of Jesus, employing all his genius and talents to 
crush it. The volume which he wrote against it is full 
of bitterness ; but with all his malice he is forced to ad- 
mit the truth of the great facts of the history. He ac- 
cused the Christians of that age of departing from the 



232 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

simplicity of Apostolic teaching in making Christ to be 
God; for, says he, " neither Paul, nor Matthew, nor 
Luke, nor Mark, ventured to call Jesus God." He 
grants the genuineness and early date of the Gospels — - 
acknowledges that Christ had power over evil spirits — 
that he walked on the sea, as related by Matthew, Mark, 
and John, — and indeed does not pretend to deny the 
miracles of the New Testament, but aims onlv to de- 
preciate them, and to show that they did not prove 
Christ to be so great a personage as the Christians pre- 
tended. He says, " Jesus has now been celebrated 
about three hundred years, having done nothing in his 
life-time worthy of remembrance, unless any one thinks 
it a mighty matter to heal lame and blind people, and 
exorcise demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida and Beth- 
any." Such is the style of his language ; he does not deny 
that Jesus had done these things, but, like a vexed boy 
who sees his companion do something for which he re- 
ceives applause, exclaims, u O, any body could do it." 
The reader will of course suppose, that if the miracles 
of Christ could have been proved false, Julian would 
have done it ; and the fact that he admits their reality 
shows that he had not courage to deny them. 

4. In the year 303, Hierocles, a well-known phi- 
losopher, and prefect at the city of Alexandria in Egypt, 
composed two books against Christianity, in which he 
makes observations upon a great number of passages in 
the New Testament. The proof of Christianity, de- 
rived from the miracles of Christ, he attempts to weaken, 
notby denying that these miracles were performed — this 
he admits — -but by attempting to show that one Appollo- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 233 



nius had performed miracles equal, if not greater. And 
these, he says, were recorded, not by ignorant men like 
Peter and Paul, but by Damis a philosopher, and one, 
Maximus of iEgis. u Now," says he, " we reckon him, 
(Apollonius) who did such wonderful things, not a god, 
but onty a man* whereas they (the Christians) give the 
appellation of God to Jesus* because he performed a few 
miracles." It will be seen from this that Hierocles did 
not presume to deny that Jesus wrought miracles, but 
only affirmed that Aplloonius had done so likewise, 
5. If we go upward to the year 270, we meet with 
another very learned and subtle opposer of Christianity, 
in the person of the celebrated philosopher Porphyry, 
He wrote a very lengthy and labored treatise against the 
religion of the Christians. He was, as has been observ- 
ed before, thoroughly versed in the Scriptures, and refers 
to numerous circumstances recorded in them, and endeav- 
ors to show that there are some things absurd and im- 
moral, and some that are contradictory, He does not 
attack, however, their authenticity: he admits that the 
Gospels were written by the disciples, and that Christ 
was himself a pious man, and was conveyed to heaven^ 
as approved by the gods. He acknowledges that Christ 
wrought miracles, but says that he had done it through 
the agency of demons. And, which is somewhat ludicrous 
to us of this day, he complains that the gods would not 
work their miracles, nor take any notice of men, be- 
cause of vexation at being neglected while Jesus receiv- 
ed so much attention. Porphyry had employed much 
talent and time in his attempts to overthrow Christian- 
ity, and if the miracles upon which it was founded could 
16 



234 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



have been proved false, he certainly would have done 
it. And had it been possible to have shown that the 
Gospels were not written by the disciples of Christ, he 
would have shown it, for he did attempt to prove that 
the book of Daniel was not written by him, nor at the 
time stated. And if there had been any chance of suc- 
cess in attacking the New Testament from this quarter, 
would he have spared it 1 Surely not. And the fact 
that he did not attempt it, is proof that he knew it would 
be hopeless, and therefore wisely kept silence on this 
point. The testimony here adduced from Porphyry, 
ought to put to the blush those of the present day, who 
are so liberal in their assertions about the authorship 
of the Gospels, and the miracles of Christ. 

6. The next witness is the celebrated Celsus, an 
Epicurean philosopher, who wrote against Christianity 
in the year 176, and was one of the most bitter antago- 
nists it ever had. It will be seen that he wrote only 
76 years after the Apcstle John. From the works of 
this enemy of the faith, may be gathered a complete 
summary of the Gospel history. He mentions the birth 
of Christ ; the w r ise men who came to worship him ; 
the massacre of the children by Herod ; Joseph's flight 
into Egypt with the child Jesus ; the baptism of Jesus, 
and the descent of the Holy Spirit ; his going about 
with his disciples, w r hom he calls boatmen, publicans, 
and wicked sailors ; his healing the sick and iame, and 
raising the dead ; his foretelling his own death and res- 
urrection ; his being betrayed and deserted by his dis- 
ciples ; his crucifixion, with all the attending circum- 
stances, the robe, the crown of thorns, the reed, the vin- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



235 



egar and gall : his being seen by Mary, whom he calls 
a fanatical woman, and his disciples ; his interview 
with the unbelieving Thomas, &c. These facts he 
does not dispute : he never pretends to deny that Christ 
worked miracles, but he denies that these made Christ 
of so much importance as Christians thought him. 
And to prove this, he very coolly ascribes them all to 
magic ! * Such the manner in which the great Celsus 
undertook to account for miracles, the reality of which 
he was compelled to admit. The Infidel of the present 
day may smile at this weakness of his leader, but he 
should remember while he smiles, that this leader had 
too much good sense withal to deny that these miracles 
were actually performed, or that the Gospel history 
was true. 

7. To these testimonies we have to add that of the 
Jews, who did not deny that miracles were performed 
by Jesus, but sought to account for them by other 
means than the power of God. Some affirmed that 
Jesus was enabled to perform these works by the assist- 
ance of the devil, with whom he was supposed to be in 
league — others attributed his miracles to the power of 
magic, which was believed by many in that age ; and, 
lastly, others declared that he had stolen a secret from 
the temple, the pronunciation of the incommunicable 
name of Jehovah, and that by the aid of this he was 
enabled to perform all his wondrous works. f All the 



* For the above facts in relation to Julian, Hierocles, Porphyry, and Celsus, 
we are indebted to Lardner's "Heathen Testimonies," works, vol. vii. See 
also Faber's " Difficulties of Infidelity, 1 ' Sect. vi. 

f The later Jews say that the name was written upon a stone in the temple, 
and that whoever should possess himself of this would be able to do any thing 



236 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDEIITY. 



prominent particulars of the life of Christ are stated as' 
true in the Talmuds, thought there is mixed up with 
them all manner of falsehood and abuse of Christ and 
his disciples. They admit also that these disciples had 
the power of working miracles, several instances of 
which are named. 

8. The reader will now perceive that the events re- 
corded in the New Testament histories concerning the 
birth, life, miracles, and death of Jesus Christ, were 
admitted to be true by the earliest opposers of Christian- 
ity, by those who lived at the very time, and immedi- 
ately after the time, in which they were performed. 
They never thought of denying these facts, because 
they were so recent, and were of such universal notori- 
ety, that there was no way to get rid of them. They 
were obliged, therefore, to acknowledge the truth of 
the Gospels, and the reality of the miracles of Christ 
and his disciples, and endeavored to account for these 
miracles by the power of demons, magic, &c. Now 
we ask the candid unbeliever if he supposes, that, had 
it been possible to have proved the history false, or the 
miracles impositions, these men would have made such 



he pleased. They farther say that it was guarded by two brass dogs, which, 
should any one obtain the name, would bark so terribly at his coming out, 
that he could not remember it. " Hut when Jesus of Nazareth, say they, went 
in, he not only learned the letters of this name, but wrote them in a parchment, 
and hid it, as he came out, in an incision which he had made in his flesh ; and 
though, through the barking of the dogs, he had forgot the name, yet he learn- 
ed it afterwards from his parchment. And it was by virtue of this, say they, 
that Jesus restored the lame, healed the leprous, raised the dead, walked upon 
the sea, and did all his other miraculous works." Staekhouse T s Hist, of the 
Bible, vol. vi. p. 112. Glasgow, 1796. See also Townley's Intro, p. 70. Gro- 
tius de Veritate, lib- v. §4. Campbell's Dissertations, D. VII. Part i. § 15. 
Fabei's Difficulties, Sect. vi. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 237 

acknowledgments ? If ever there was a time to ex- 
pose the fraud, and destroy Christianity, it was certainly 
at this early period, when it would have been perfectly 
easy to have ascertained the truth or falsehood of the 
whole matter. And if ever there were men who were 
fitted to accomplish this, they were such men as 
Julian, Porphyry, Celsus, and the contemporary Jews, 
They were men to whom the present race of sceptical 
opposers are mere pigmies. They had talents and ac- 
quirements of the first order ; they were men of rank 
and influence, especially Julian the emperor, and they 
had all the temporal power and means for pushing their 
investigations to the utmost extent ; and had it been pos- 
sible to have proved a fraud in any respect, they would 
have effected it. And yet, after all, they are compelled 
to admit the truth of the history, and explain its mirac- 
ulous facts by magic and the aid of evil spirits ! 

9. Here we would frankly ask the infidel of this day 
to pause a moment for reflection. Let him consider the 
particulars now before him, with an honest heart and an 
open mind, and then inquire of himself what better in- 
formation with regard to the truth of Christianity he 
enjoys, than that possessed by Celsus who lived so near 
the times of the Apostles ? Let him ask what he has 
discovered in relation to this great question which was 
not known to Celsus? And lastly, let him seriously 
ask himself whether the confessions of those who have 
been named, and more particularly of Celsus, who lived 
so near the birth of Christianity, who was so bitter 
against it, and who possessed all the requisite means 
and the disposition to prove the falsehood, had any ex- 



233 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 



isted — let him ask himself, we repeat, whether the ac- 
knowledgments of such are not unquestionable, irre- 
sistible proof of the truth of the Christian history? 

10. When he has duly weighed the above, we ask 
him to consider the following confessions of eminent 
modern Infidel writers. The well-known Lord Boli fig- 
broke says, " The Evangelists did not content them- 
selves to give a general account of the doctrines of Je- 
sus Christ, nor presume in feigned dialogues to make 
him deliver their opinions in his own name, and as his 
own doctrines. They recorded his doctrines in the 
very words in which he taught them, and they were 
careful to mention the several occasions on which he 
delivered them to his disciples or others. If, therefore, 
Plato and Xenophon tell us with a good degree of cer- 
tainty what Socrates taught, the two Evangelists seem 
to tell us with much more what the Savior taught, and 
commanded them to teach." Hobbes admits that he 
" sees no reason to doubt, but that the books of the New 
Testament, as we have them, are the true registers of 
those things which were done and said by the Proph- 
ets and Apostles." Chubb left the following acknow- 
ledgment- — " That there was such a person as Jesus 
Christ, and that he, in the main, did and taught as is 
recorded of him, appears probable, because it is improb- 
able that Christianity should have taken place in the 
way and to the degree that it did, (or at least that we 
are told it did,) supposing the history of Christ's life 
and ministry to be a fiction/' * 



* Leland's Deistical writers, vol. i. 205. ii.152. 



SECTION It 

ARGUMENT PROM THE RAPID PROGRESS OP CHRISTIANITY ON ITS FIRST 
APPEARANCE. 

1. In the consideration of the subject of this section 
we shall have several particulars which, for the better 
understanding- of the matter, will require a separate ex- 
amination. The unparalleled progress which the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ made on its first promulgation, is 
a fact of great interest to our inquiry, and it is a fact, 
we believe, which can be accounted for on no ground 
whatever but that of the truth of the Gospel history. 
If what is stated in this concerning the miracles of 
Christ and the Apostles be mere fiction, then have we 
a mighty and wonderful effect, for the existence of 
which no cause adequate to its production can be 
assigned. This will be shown in what follows, which, 
to render it the more distinct, we shall divide into three 
parts or particulars. 

2. First — The character and situation of the disci- 
pies. As we have already made some observations on 
this head, a few words will answer our purpose. The 
disciples and Apostles, with the exception of Paul, were 
men of low estate, their employments were of the most 



240 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY . 

humble kind, as tax-gatherers and fishermen, and they 
could of course have had but little time for the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, or the improvement of their minds. 
They had been all their lives, previous to becoming 
followers of Jesus, employed in supporting themselves 
and their families by their honest industry. It will be 
seen by the reader, therefore, that they could have 
known but very little of men and things, and that they 
were the last persons to be thought of for undertaking 
such an enterprise as the conversion of the world to 
any religion, much less to such as they taught. And 
it would seem that any person who is disposed to weigh 
the matter, will admit that if they were prospered to 
any great extent it was surely remarkable, and contrary 
to all that we know of the history of man : any one 
would admit this, we think, if he would not admit that 
their success must have been owing to some other pow- 
er than that of their own ignorance and obscurity. Let 
it be remembered, then, that the first instruments em- 
ployed in the promulgation of Christianity, were men 
of humble birth and condition, who had neither influ- 
ence, power, nor knowledge of themselves, to aid them 
in the mighty work which they had undertaken, We 
come next to consider the nature of the religion which 
they offered to the world, and of the facts connected 
with it from which it took its rise. 

3. Second — The materials ivith which they had to 
work. In the very outset of their undertaking the dis- 
ciples met with an insuperable difficulty, provided they 
had no means of establishing their cause but their own 
powers of persuasion, The life ajacl death of their 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



241 



leader, and especially the manner of his death and cruci- 
fixion, at once threw up in their pathway a barrier of on 
small magnitude. The views of the Jews and Romans 
with regard to crucifixion, will explain our meaning, 
and show the strong feelings which these first preach- 
ers of the faith had to combat. Among the Jews death 
by crucifixion was held in absolute horror, and they 
regarded him who was crucified, not only as an object 
of execration from men, but as abandoned and cast off 
of God. The saying of their law, M Cursed is every 
one that is hanged on a tree," rang in their ears as the 
death-knell of hope and mercy to all who fell within 
its application. Hence they took every opportunity to 
cast reproach and odium upon the Christians and their 
religion, on account of the death of its author on the 
cross. " The person whom you call your Messiah" says 
Trypho, the Jew in his debate with Justin Martyr, A. D. 
140, " incurred the last disgrace and ignominy, for he 
fell under the greatest curse in the law of God : he was 
crucified ! And we hesitate with regard to believing 
one who perished so ignominiously." Such was the feel- 
ing which Christianity had to encounter on the part of 
the Jews. 

4. The heathen views of crucifixion were equally 
opposed to the success of Christianity, and were calcu- 
lated in every way to prevent its reception among the 
different people composing the Roman empire. It was 
a punishment inflicted only on the most notorious crim- 
inals and malefactors, and on slaves. And it is said by 
some, that it was not inflicted "on criminals unless they 
were slaves ; for it was thought too infamous a punish- 



242 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

ment for freemen, be their crimes what they might. It 
was considered by all as the most shameful and igno- 3 
minious death to which a poor wretch could be exposed; 
In the minds of these people it was a combination of 
every circumstance of " odium, disgrace, and public 
scandal."* Hence comes the expression of the Apostle 
Paul, " We preach Christ crucified— unto the Jews a 
stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.! 
To the nations of Greece and Rome, the idea of making 
one who had suffered the disgraceful and infamous pun- 
ishment of a slave, the author of a religion for the 
world, was indeed foolishness in the superlative ; and 
they looked with pity and contempt upon the Apostles 
for engaging in such a ridiculous and hopeless enter- 
prise. " From this circumstance," says Justin Martyr, 
"the heathen are fully convinced of our madness for 
giving the second place after the immutable and eternal 
God, and Father of all, to a person who was crucified." 
Such were the feelings with which the heathen looked 
upon the disciples of Jesus, and such the strong preju- 
dices against which they had to contend at every step 
of their progress. And with such a foundation as this 
to begin with, we leave the unbeliever to decide what 
prospect there was of success, while we proceed to point 
out another difficulty. 

5. The religion of Jesus Christ was in the very 
commencement at war with the long-cherished opinions, 

* Home's Introduction, v. iii.pp. 149—152. A. Clarke on Matt, xxvii. 35. 
Adam's Roman Ant. p. 230. 
j 1 Cor. i. 23. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



243 



the deeply-venerated superstitions, and all the ancient 
and hallowed practices and rites, both of the Jews and 
the heathen. It began by sweeping down every other 
religion upon the face of the earth ; it admitted of no 
compromise, it professed to build itself on the ruins of 
all others, and in unequivocal language denounced all 
other gods but One, and all other worship but that of 
the heart. 

6. To the Jew it came in condemnation to his long 
prayers, repeated fasts, and tithes of annis, cummin, and 
mint, while weightier matters were omitted. Yea, 
more than this — it came to him with the startling annun- 
ciation that the dispensation of his great and honored 
prophet was at an end ; that the law, which he reverenc- 
ed above all things, was to be abolished, and with it all 
their proud pre-eminence as the chosen of God. The 
glory and the splendor of the temple service were to 
give place to the unadorned and simple worship of the 
humble Nazarene. All forms and ceremonies were to 
be done away; and broad phylacteries, and greetings in 
the market, were to be as forgotten things. And they 
were to look upon the despised Gentiles as their breth- 
ren, as children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise 
through faith. "All this must be done," was the language 
which the new religion addressed to the narrow and 
prejudiced Jew. Let the reader ask himself how far, 
by human persuasion alone, under these circumstances, 
the master or the disciples would be likely to advance 
with a people who have been famed for their bigotry 
and exclusiveness, and for a strong attachment to their 
religious institutions. 



244 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



7. To the heathen did this religion come in a like 
habiliment. It commanded them to away with their 
gods of brass, and wood, and stone— to cast down their 
temples, and altars, and shrines, and " turn from these 
vanities unto the living God. 7 ' It told them that all 
their deities were false, that they were creatures of the 
imagination, and that all their past worship had been 
folly and absurdity. The most sacred superstitions 
were denounced as abominations, and the practices 
w r hieh their fathers had honored, and which themselves 
had known from their youth up, their religious games, 
their offerings, and sacrifices, and omens, and oracles, 
were all given to the winds by this upstart religion. 
The philosophy and learning of the sages, the subtle 
speculations of their Platos and Ciceros, and a host of 
other luminaries, were given over to a like fate, and 
their teachers and wise men were pronounced " blind 
leaders of the blind. 51 And by whom 1 Why, by a 
band of poor mechanics and fishermen from Judea ! by 
a few r obscure individuals from a nation universally de- 
spised and detested ! Was such presumption in such 
men to be endured by the lofty spirits of Greece and 
Rome ? Were they to bring all their learning and 
philosophy, and lay it down as worthless trash at the 
feet of hirn who had been crucified 1 No, they would 
set their faces against such unheard of daring ; they 
would, and did, use their efforts to crush this dictatorial 
religion, and silence forever its advocates. 

8. We have now only to ask the reader to place these 
particulars together — the obscurity of the disciples, and 
their want of learning and influence — the horror and 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 245 



contempt with which both Jews and heathen looked 
upon the crucified Jesus — 'the character and pretensions 
of their religion, which came in contact with the most 
cherished opinions and prejudices of these people, which 
professed on the threshold the destruction of every other 
religion, and thus called upon all to renounce their 1 
former gods and practices— and lastly, the sentence of 
condemnation which they gave forth against the philos- 
ophy and boasted wisdom of the age ; — let these facts 
be brought together, and let it be considered that they 
arrayed against the disciples of Christ all the influence 
of learning and power, all the contempt, and hatred, 
and superstition of the world, and then let the question 
be put to the honest heart,- — Is it possible that these men 
should have succeeded 1 Yet they did succeed ! 

9. We will not appeal to the testimony of the Gospel 
writers themselves, although, they tell us of great mul- 
titudes who believed, even to the number of three thous- 
and in one day. We pass these, and come to the testi- 
mony of one who was a heathen- — Tacitus^ the Roman 
historian, whose name has been mentioned before. In 
giving an account of the great fire at Rome which took 
place in the year 64, he says that the Christians were 
punished by Nero, who had accused them of being in- 
cendiaries, and adds that their religion, or, as he terms 
it, " pernicious superstition, though checked for a while, 
broke out again* and spread itself not only over Judea* 
the first source of this evil, but even introduced itself 
into Rome, the common asylum which receives and 
protects, whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious* 
At first only those who confessed themselves of this 



246 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



sect were apprehended, and afterwards, by their dis- 
coveries, a great multitude were convicted." * Here 
we find that within thirty years after the death of 
Christ, his religion had spread not only throughout Ju- 
dea, but had even entered Rome, the mistress of the 
world, and had gained there " a vast multitude " of be- 
lievers ! How is this astonishing progress to be ac- 
counted for without the admission of a miraculous pow- 
er ? Could the fishermen of Judea, in the face of such 
a host of opposition, have effected this, ignorant alike 
of the philosophy and language of Rome % We re- 
quest the unbeliever to consider this matter. 

10. We appeal next to Pliny, who, in the year 107, 
testifies to the great spread of Christianity, in his letter 
to the emperor Trajan, as follows : — " A great number 
of persons of all ages and ranks, of both sexes likewise, 
are accused, and will be accused. Nor has the conta- 
gion of this superstition seized cities only, but the lesser 
towns also, and the open country." He also mentions 
that the temples had been for a long time almost for- 
saken, and that no one had brought victims for sacrifices 
to the gods. These facts show us how widely the 
Christian faith had diffused itself as early as the year 
107, and how effectually too, since it caused the deser- 
tion of the heathen temples and gods. This letter was 
written from Bithynia, a province on the Euxine or 
Black sea, of which Pliny was pro-consul. Lucian 
bears similar testimony, in the way of complaint, con- 



* Tacit. Ann. 1. xv. c. 44. "multitudo ingens.' 5 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 247 



cerning Pontus, another province on the Euxine. His 
testimony is of a later date, however, than Pliny's. 

1 i. The last evidence will be that of the early Chris- 
tian fathers, who bear witness to the wonderful advance 
of the religion of Jesus in their Apologies presented to 
the Roman emperors. Justin Martyr testifies that in 
his day " there was no part of mankind, whether Greeks 
or Barbarians, where there was not some Christians, 
and where prayers were not offered to God through the 
crucified Jesus." This was at the year 140. Irenseus 
who lived in the year 170, speaks of churches in Ger- 
many, Spain, the East, Egypt, and Lybia. Tertullian 
affirms, at the close of the second century, that Christ 
had been preached to all nations known to the Romans, 
and to many whom they had not reached with their 
conquering arms. He names the Parthians, Medes, 
Elamites, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Armenia, 
Phrygia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Pamphylia, Egypt, the 
regions of Africa held by the Romans, and those by 
the natives, the tribes of the Getuli and Moors, the vari- 
ous nations of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, of Germany, 
Scythia, and many unknown nations, and several un- 
known provinces and islands : the inhabitants of all 
these, he says, had heard the Gospel, and though un- 
subdued by the Romans, many of them had submitted 
to Christ.* And all this before the year 200. Let it 
not be said that these are all barbarous nations ; the 
testimony refers to civilized as well as savage people, 
and the witness of the Roman historian and philoso- 



* Grotius de Veritate, 1. ii. § 18. where may be found much additional tes- 
timony to the same intent. 



248 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



pher* already given, proves its progress at Rome and 
in Asia Minor. Indeed, it is established that before 
forty years had elapsed from the death of Christ, muh 
titudes in Judea, Egypt, Lesser Asia, Greece, and Italy, 
the then great theatres of the arts and sciences, of 
learning and philosophy, had embraced the religion of 
the crucified Nazarene.* 

12. The reader has now the whole matter before 
him — a religion directly opposite to the sordid views 
and secular interests of mankind, and at war with all 
the feelings, and practices, and institutions of the world 
- — the instruments for propagating this, a few obscure and 
unlettered fishermen of Judea — and lastly, in the face of 
all possible prejudice, and in the midst of a most tre-^ 
mendous storm of persecution, this religion in the space 
of a few years spreading itself far and near, among all 
nations, civilized and barbarous, overthrowing false gods 
and false worship, and establishing itself upon their 
ruins ! 

13. Now, we would ask the unbeliever how he can 
account for this unparalleled progress and triumph of 
Christianity, unless the Gospel history is true ? How 
can he solve this wonderful problem without admitting 
these men were aided by a miraculous power 1 Php 
losophy requires him to give to every effect an adequate 
cause ; but if he denies the miracles of the New Testa- 
ment, he fails to assign a sufficient cause. It is utterly 
incredible that this religion, " destitute of all human ad- 
vantages, protected by no authority, assisted by no art, 



* Newton on the Prophecies, Diss, xviii. Part I. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 249 

not recommended by the reputation of its author, not 
enforced by eloquence in its advocates," should have 
prevailed so mightily-— it is utterly incredible that 
twelve poor men, artless and illiterate, should, without 
aid, have gone forward victorious over the fiercest and 
most determined opposition ; over the tyranny of the 
magistrate, and the subtleties of the philosopher ; over 
the prejudices of the Gentile, and the bigotry of the 
Jew, until the voice of their faith has been heard in 
every land, until at last, through their labors, their fol- 
lowers, to use the language of Gibbon, " erected the 
triumphant banner of the cross on the ruins of the Cap- 
itol " of Rome, 

14. We appeal to the good sense and candor of the 
Infidel to say whether such a religion, with such advo- 
cates, could have obtained such triumphs without the 
help of God 1 We ask him only to look at this as a 
reasonable man> to consider all the facts, and as a rea^ 
sonable man to decide whether its astonishing success, 
if there were no supernatural agency, is not of itself a 
greater miracle than any recorded in the New Testa- 
ment 1 

15. Suppose twelve men, companions of one who 
was lately executed for arson, in Boston, should come 
forth to day, and affirm that he had risen from the dead, 
and that before his execution he had performed many 
wonderful works ; as restoring the lame, the blind, and 
deaf and dumb, and giving life to the dead : suppose 
farther, that they declare themselves to be gifted with 
the power of speaking all languages, and the power of 
working miracles; all which we know to be absolutely 

17 



250 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

false— and suppose, once more, that they proceed to 
preach these things to us, and to others in all parts of 
the country ; is it probable that they would convert us, 
that they would make us and thousands in every direc- 
tion, believe that he who had been hanged was risen 
from the dead — that he had wrought all these astonish- 
ing wonders in open day and before vast multitudes, 
and yet that no one had ever seen or heard of them be- 
fore ? Is it probable or possible, that these miserable 
men could make us believe these things, and still more, 
that they themselves were working the most stupen- 
dous miracles before our very eyes, while all the time 
we knew that the whole w T as a palpable, outrageous 
falsehood ? 

16. Yet this is a case exactly parallel to that of the 
first propagation of Christianity, if the Gospel history 
be not true. The Infidel is forced to admit these 
astounding absurdities in relation to the disciples of 
Christ ; he is forced to admit " that a great number of 
people on a sudden, and without any reason, upwards 
of seventeen hundred years ago, took it into their heads 
to believe, that they were eye-witnesses to many mira- 
cles which never happened — that they were even them- 
selves the subjects of miraculous operations which they 
never experienced, and that they persuaded thousands 
of others to believe the same," and this notwithstanding 
they all knew, at the same time, that it was false ! 

17. But we need not press this farther. The aston- 
ishing progress of Christianity under all the disadvan- 
tages which have been named, and in the face of perse- 
cution, chains, imprisonment, and death, can never be 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 251 

accounted for, except upon the truth of the Gospel his- 
tory. And it is believed, that any one who will divest 
himself of all prejudice, and look upon these things 
with the calm eye of Reason and true Philosophy, can- 
not turn away without the conviction that there was at 
work here a more than human Power, that the spirits 
of these poor peasants and fishermen of Judea were 
baptized into the wisdom of God, their tongues un- 
loosed, and their hands strengthened with the might of 
miracles, 



SECTION 111. 



ARGUMENT FROM THE SUFFERINGS OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS, 

1. The sufferings of the early Christians almost ex- 
ceed belief ; for it is difficult to bring ourselves to credit 
the unwelcome fact, that men could be so nearly trans- 
formed into demons as were the persecutors of the 
meek and unoffending followers of Christ. No evil 
that can be imagined, no punishment which it was pos- 
sible for the most fiendish to invent, was left untried 
against these poor people, and every engine which the 
hatred and vengeance of their enemies could command, 
was set in motion to crush them and their detested re- 
ligion. 

2. The Jews, according to Justin Martyr, sent per- 
sons into all parts of the earth to denounce the Chris- 
tians as impious and heretical. Their Rabbis pro- 
nounced curses against them in the synagogues, and 
solemnly charged the people to hold no intercourse with 
them. They seized every opportunity to accuse them 
that they might be put to death, and hesitated not at all 
to swear to the most abominable falsehoods against 
them. At the hands of the heathen they fared no bet- 
ter. They were described as the most abandoned of 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 253 

men; the most unnatural and revolting crimes were 
charged upon them, as feeding on human flesh, and 
after the horrible repast, extinguishing the lights and 
indulging in the foulest debauchery.* Domestics were 
solicited to give evidence against them, and murders 
were purposely committed by others that the Christians 
might be accused, and for this purpose their children 
and wives were put to the torture, that in their agony 
they might drop something to furnish matter of charge. 
But they went farther than this. 

3. Mr. Gibbon, who will not surely be charged with 
exaggeration, holds the following language: — "If the em- 
pire had been afflicted with any recent calamity, a plague, 
a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tiber had, or the 
Nile had not, risen beyond its banks ; if the earth had 
shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had 
been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were con- 
vinced, that the crimes and impiety of the Christians, 
who were spared by the excessive lenity of the govern- 
ment, had at length provoked the Divine Justice. The 
impatient clamors of the multitude denounced them as 
the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the se- 
verest tortures, and required with irresistible vehemence 
that their leaders should be apprehended instantly and 
cast to the lions." This testimony of Mr. Gibbon, is 
fully established by the testimony of the heathen wri- 
ters themselves, as will be seen in the following. 

4. Tacitus tells us that when the calamity of the great 



Gardner's Jewish Testimonies, c. ii. works, vol. vi. pp. 388 — 392, 



254 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

fire fell upon Rome, Nero "inflicted the most exquisite 
tortures upon the Christians." " They died in torments, 
and their torments were embittered by insult and de- 
rision. Some were nailed on crosses; others were 
sown up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the 
fury of dogs ; others again, smeared over with combusti- 
ble materials, were used as torches to illuminate the dark- 
ness of night. The gardens of Nero were destined for 
the spectacle, which was accompanied with the games 
of the circus, while Nero mingled with the multitude 
as a charioteer." And all these horrible sufferings 
were heaped upon them, he says, " not so much for the 
crime of burning the city, as for their hatred of human 
kind." To these punishments to which the Christians 
were subjected, the poets Juvenal and Martial are sup- 
posed to allude, as they both speak of the garments of 
pitch and sulphur, which the latter calls " the trouble- 
some coat," making himself merry with their torments. 
Epictetus, the philosopher, speaks of the obstinacy with 
which the Christians died, that is, their firmness. Pliny 
bears witness also to the sufferings and death of the 
Christians.* 



* Some notion of the terrible slaughter of the Christians by their heathen 
persecutors may be gathered from the startling fact that in the persecution un- 
der Diocletian, which commenced A. D. 303, " not fewer than 17,000 suffered 
death in one month ! In the province of Egypt alone, no less than 144,000 are 
said to have died by the violence of their persecutors, and 700,000 through the 
fatigues of banishment, or of the public works to which they were condemned." 
See Townley's Intro, p. 33. and especially Mosheim, cent. iv. P. I. c. i. For 
farther particulars see Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. xvi. Paley's Evidences. 
Home's Intro, v. i. 350. Christian Examiner, v. ii. pp. 330- -332. Grotius de 
Veritate,!. ii. $19. Fox's Eook of Martyrs. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 255 

5. The whole matter is thus thrown together by 
Home:— " By the magistrates they were subjected to 
heavy fines, their property was confiscated, and they 
were made to suffer a variety of ignominious punish- 
ments, which to generous minds are more grievous than 
death itself. They were imprisoned and proscribed I 
they were banished, they were condemned to work in 
the mines ; they were thrown to be devoured by wild 
beasts, or made to fight with them in the theatres for 
the diversion of the people ; they were put to the rack ; 
they were placed in red-hot iron chairs ; they were 
crucified, impaled, burnt alive;— in short, they were 
subjected to all the torments which cruelty and barbar- 
ity, refined and inflamed by revenge, could invent ; — 
torments the bare mention of which excites horror in 
the human mind." 

6. Now suppose the Gospel history a fiction, and the 
disciples impostors, and we have before us another 
problem which no human ingenuity can solve. How 
can it be accounted for that these men should fearlessly 
and with unshrinking firmness, encounter such dreadful 
and tremendous sufferings, unless the facts of the Chris- 
tian religion be true ? Can it be possible that the dis- 
ciples would have submitted to be tortured, and put to 
death in every way, and with all possible cruelties, if 
they knew that they were testifying to falsehood, and 
confession would save them ? Would they have en- 
dured all this long train of evils and horrors for the pur- 
pose of keeping up an imposition for the support of 
which they could have had no earthly motive ? an im- 
position which from the beginning had brought them 



256 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

only stripes, imprisonment, chains and racks ? Would 
they affirm what they knew to be utterly false, that 
Christ had risen from the dead, and die in attestation of 
the falsehood, when truth would have secured to them 
life, and wealth, and honors? And would thousands 
of their followers declare that they had seen them 
work miracles, and submit to the terrible tortures inflict- 
ed by Nero, and to a death of the most excruciating 
agonies, rather than reject what they were satisfied 
from the beginning was a base and wicked lie 1 Have 
impostors ever before or since done the like ? We ask 
the unbeliever to pause here also, and see if he can rec- 
oncile this conduct of the Apostles and first Christians 
with the known principles which govern mankind in 
their pursuits. Let the question be put, — " Is it con- 
ceivable, that Human Nature must not have been tired 
out, with going on, day after day and year after year, for a 
whole life-time propagating a known falsehood, by which 
they were to get nothing but contempt, misery, torture, 
and death?" Let him ask himself if he would get up 
a falsehood, the belief of which by others could be of no 
possible benefit to him, and then for years suffer all the 
pains of imprisonment and torture, and at last be wrap- 
ped in pitch and burned to death, when to have confessed 
the useless fraud would have saved him from the whole. 
And if he knows he would not do it, let him account 
for it, if he can, that not one, or two, or a few only, but 
that hundreds and thousands of the first Christians 
should do this. 

7. It will not do now, to avoid the difficulty, by say- 
ing they may have been deceived. This is impossible, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 257 

from the very nature of the case. They did not testify 
to mere opinions or speculations, about which it is prob- 
able there may have been mistake ; they declared that 
they had seen, and heard, and known, that of which they 
spake. They bore witness to facts about which there 
could have been no deception. The feeding of multi- 
tudes with a few loaves and fishes ; the restoring the 
fylind, and deaf, and dumb, with a word; the raising the 
dead ; the controlling the elements these were things 
in which there was no chance for mistake, they were ob- 
jects of sense. And they could not have been deceiv- 
ed with regard to Christ; they certainly knew whether 
they had seen him, and conversed with him, and sat at 
table with him— and by their own account they were 
not very credulous in this respect, for one of their num- 
ber would not believe until he had seen the hands, and 
feet, and put his own hand into the side of his crucified 
Master. Nor could they have been deceived in relation 
to themselves, for they did most certainly know whether 
they were gifted with the power of speaking in unknown 
tongues, and of working miracles, Concerning these 
things deception was impossible, and the disciples, 
therefore, were not deceived. 

8. Neither will the plea avail anything, "that many 
enthusiastic people, in different ages and countries, have 
exposed, and do expose, themselves to the same diffi- 
culties which the primitive Christians did; and are 
ready to give up their lives for the most idle follies 
imaginable." In the first place, this is not strictly 
true, for no people of any age or country ever suffered 
to the extent that the first Christians suffered, That 



258 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

many have submitted to death rather than give up their 
honest opinions is freely granted. And what does this 
prove ? That they firmly believed those opinions to be 
truth. We do not contend that it proves the opinions true, 
but only that they believed them true. But surely every 
man of discernment must perceive that there is a vast 
difference between opinions and facts i The disciples and 
first Christians suffered and died not merely because 
they believed, but because they knew, because they had 
seen, and heard, and performed themselves. Their at- 
testation, therefore, was to facts. If a man affirm that 
he believes that the earth is square, and lays down his 
life rather than yield this opinion, we should consider 
this as sufficient proof of the reality of his belief If 
then the disciples tell us that they saw a man blind 
from his birth restored to sight, that they saw one who 
had been dead four days restored to life, and if they 
submit to torture and death rather than deny this, it is 
the strongest proof that can be given of the reality of 
these facts. 

9. The conclusion to which we are brought is plain 
and necessary. That the disciples and first Christians 
should have voluntarily given themselves to trials, and 
sufferings, and death in its most horrible forms, for the 
purpose of perpetuating what they all knew to be a vile, 
impious, and useless imposture, is at variance with 
every known principle of human nature, opposed to all 
our experience of mankind, and utterly impossible. 
Therefore, these things can only be accounted for on the 
ground of the actual occurrence of the events of which 
they testify, and consequently the truth of the Gospel 
history. 



SECTION XV; 



ARGUMENT FROM EXISTING INSTITUTIONS. 

1 . It is a well-known truth that several observances 
are kept at this day by Christians as memorials of cer- 
tain facts recorded in the New Testament history. 
Among these are the Lords Supper, and the observance 
of the First Bay of the Week — the first of which pro- 
fesses to be commemorative of the life, sufferings, and 
death of Jesus Christ; and the second, of his resurrection 
from the dead. Now, we consider these institutions as 
absolute demonstrations of the truth and reality of the 
events of which they are commemorative ; because, un- 
less they actually took place, there is no rational way 
in which to account for the existence of said institutions. 
And we wish much that the unbeliever would patiently 
examine this particular, and, if he refuse to believe 
in the works, death, and resurrection of Christ, to give 
a reasonable explanation of the manner in which these 
observances came into being among Christians. 

2. As an illustration of the argument to be drawn 
from this particular, let us suppose that the Infidel takes 
upon himself to affirm, that the story of the existence of 
the great and beloved Washington is a mere fiction, that 



260 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY". 

no such person ever lived, or if he did, that he never per- 
formed the works that have been ascribed to him — sup- 
pose he pretend to make this assertion ; would it not be 
immediately asked of him, how the people of this country 
came to observe the twenty-second day of February as his 
birth day ? If such a man as Washington never lived, 
how is it possible that this observance should have taken 
place? But if it be admitted that he lived, yet did not 
perform the deeds which he is said to have performed ; 
still we ask, how came the people to celebrate this day 
in memory of him ? If the history of his career is all a 
romance, and he was nothing but an ordinary citizen, it 
is passing strange that the people should have taken it 
into their heads that he was a great man, the Father 
of his country, and this for no manner of cause what- 
ever ) It must be seen then, we think, that the very 
fact of the observance of the day in question, is demon- 
strative proof that Washington lived, and acquired 
great feme with his countrymen by the works which 
he did, 

3. Another similar example is found in the celebra- 
tion of the fourth day of July, as the anniversary of our 
national independence. There is no way to account 
for this celebration except upon the ground that the his- 
tory in relation to this matter is true, that on this day, 
1776, was made the declaration of our Independence. 
If no such event ever took place, then no reasonable 
answer can ever be given to the question, Why do we 
observe this day with such rejoicings ? No explana- 
tion can be given of the origin of this celebration, and 
it is, and must always remain, utterly unaccountable 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 261 



that the people of this country should have universally 
received the false impression, that their fathers had pro- 
claimed themselves free, and had, by a long and trying 
war secured their liberty. But rather than be reduced 
to this extremity, every one, it is believed, will admit, 
that the celebration of the fourth day of July presup- 
poses the truth of the history in connection with it ■ 
because otherwise such celebration could not have 
come into being, and have been received on this ground 
by the people of this country. 

4. We have only to ask now, that the application be 
made to the standing institutions of the Christian reli-* 
gion mentioned at the commencement of this section. 
If the Evangelical records are rejected, how shall we 
account for the existence of the present celebration of 
the Lord's Supper ? There must have been some rea- 
son for this observance ; Christians would not surely 
have begun or established this for nothing. If, then, 
the cause assigned by the Gospel histories be not the 
true cause, what is the true one 1 Will the unbeliever, 
by an appeal to the pages of history, point out to us the 
real origin of this institution ? will he bring forward 
from this source, what he believes to be the true cause, 
and the evidence for his belief] And when he has 
done this, we shall require him to show the time and 
manner in which Christians came to adopt their present 
views of this institution ; to show why the true cause 
of its being observed should have been suddenly and 
silently dropped, and a false one substituted in its place ; 
and to show, farther, why we have no records or tradi- 
tions respecting this remarkable change. 



262 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

5. The same observations made here in relation to 
the Lord's Supper, may, with equal propriety and force, 
be made in relation to the First Day of the week. As 
already stated, this day is kept by Christians every 
where in memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead. Now, if no such event ever took place, 
how came Christians to take such notice of this day ? 
If the whole story is mere fiction, without the least 
foundation, how, in the name of propriety and good 
sense, could this institution ever have begun? What 
reason could have been assigned for their conduct by 
those who first started it ? And if they gave a reason, 
why has not that reason been given from that time to 
this ? How should it happen that some new reason, 
such as we have now, should all at once have been as- 
signed as the real origin, and Christians all over the 
world should have so quietly acquiesced in this ehange, 
without asking the propriety thereof? It appears to 
us, that these questions must serve to place the matter 
in its true light, and to show that these institutions are 
unanswerable evidence of the actual occurrence of the 
events of which they are commemorative. There is 
no other way to explain consistently their existence. 
Things cannot have a being without some cause, and 
especially such definite institutions as these. It is not 
an easy matter to conceive of various nations in all 
parts of the world agreeing together, or rather without 
any agreement, determining, all at once, and for no 
manner of reason, to keep certain observances as memo- 
rials of things which never had an existence, or of 
events which never took place. Yet, this must be con- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 263 

ceived, and believed, or it must be admitted that the 
Gospel history is true. 

6. It will answer no purpose to say here, that these 
institutions may have been established long after the 
time at which the events that they commemorate are 
said to have taken place, and, therefore, that it was easy 
to impose them upon a credulous people. If the sup- 
position of their late date were correct, the conclusion 
would by no means follow. Could we be made to be- 
lieve that another George Washington lived some 
three or four hundred years since, and performed sun- 
dry mighty acts in behalf of his country ? And could 
the people of this country be so far influenced by any 
man, or body of men, as to be persuaded to observe the 
twenty-third day of February in memory of him ? 
And again, we ask, How long would it take to make 
us believe that one of the pilgrim fathers rose from the 
dead in 1630, and to observe the second day of the week 
in commemoration of this event ? It will be seen, we 
imagine, that it would be no easy task to impose such 
a story, and such an institution in proof of it, upon our- 
selves, or upon any other people. The impossibility 
of such a thing clearly shows the weakness of the ob- 
jection or theory in question. But this is not all ; 
there is yet another failure in this supposition. 

7. The books of the New Testament bear witness 
that these observances were kept from the beginning, 
by the very companions and disciples of Jesus. If this 
was not true, whenever the attempt was made to estab- 
lish them, it must have proved fruitless. For the per- 
sons upon whom it was designed to practice the impo- 



264 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 

sition, would immediately point to these books, and say^ 
" These books of yours tell us that the institutions 
which you call upon us to observe, have been observed 
from the days of Christ, and yet this is the first time 
we have ever heard of them. How is it, then, that this 
is all new to us ? Have we been for years past doing 
these things without knowing it 1 Really, we cannot 
think ourselves so stupid • and yet we must admit this, 
or your books are plainly false." Would not the peo- 
ple* of necessity, think and reason in this way; and 
would not the imposture be exploded at the outset 1 It 
appears to us that this result would most certainly fol* 
low, and it would seem, that it cannot appear in a light 
very different from this* to any one who will carefully 
examine the matter. 

8. There is but one other evasion which deserves to 
be considered. It may be said that these observances 
might have been in existence among the people, and 
some designing person may have induced them to be* 
lieve that their origin was such as it is now believed to 
be* But this is also attended with difficulty. It takes 
for granted that thousands and millions of men had 
long been in the habit of attending to these celebrations, 
and that very frequently, for no reason and with no ob- 
ject. They met together on the first day of every 
week, and they faithfully observed the ceremony of 
eating of the bread and drinking of the wine with 
peculiar solemnities, without ever knowing what they 
did it for ! Now we cannot readily persuade ourselves 
that such multitudes of people of all nations, and in 
such widely distant countries, should, without a cause, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 265 



take it into their heads to observe these things, and 
should chance to hit upon exactly the same method and 
manner of doing it. As well might we contend that 
the people of this country were in the practice of firing 
cannon for thirty years or more, on the fourth of July, 
without knowing why they did it ; when fortunately 
some one came along and told them that it was because 
that was the birth-day of their freedom, and, believing 
this, they have continued to fire them from that time to 
the present. 

9. The conclusion to which we must come, after 
these considerations, is evident. These institutions are 
commemorative of the life, sufferings, death, and resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ : they profess to have commenced 
at the time the events, of which they are memorials, 
took place ; and they have been continued from that 
time to the present. Now, these things are wholly in- 
consistent with any conceivable imposture; their exist- 
ence can only be accounted for by admitting the reality 
of the events in question. This admitted, the truth of 
the Gospel history follows as a necessary conse- 
quence.* 



* Leslie's Short Method with Deists is the best work on the subject of this 
section ever written, and is altogether unanswerable. The writer lays down 
four marks or rules which are {C incompatible with any imposture that ever 
yet has been, or can possibly be." An attempt was made by a sceptical gen- 
tleman in Scotland to find an imposture having all these four marks ; but 
having examined the history and religion of all nations, and having for twenty 
years been on the inquiry and search, he at last gave it up as a hopeless task. 
The work is what it professes to be, a "Short Method," containing about 
forty pages, and should be read by all, believers and unbelievers. 

18 



266 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



I. We have now arrived at the close of our investi- 
gation, and if the reader has gone with us, step by step, 
through the whole, he will readily call up in his mind 
the following positions : — 

1. There is a God. It was shown that neither the 
laws of Nature, nor the eternity and inherent proper- 
ties of matter, were, separately or together, adequate to 
the production of the phenomena with which we are 
surrounded ; and that we w r ere therefore necessarily 
led to a Supreme Intelligence. Direct proof of this 
was brought from the beautiful and perfect mechanism 
of the human body as a whole — from the admirable 
contrivance displayed in its several parts — from the 
wonderful harmony and arrangement of the planetary 
system — and from the benevolent adaptation of the nat- 
ural world to the wants of man. 

2. A Revelation reasonable and probable. 
This shown from the parental character of God — his 
wisdom and goodness — from the wants of man — and 
from the insufficiency of the light of Nature as a 
guide. 

3. Necessity of a Revelation. This shown 
from the state of the world before, and at the time of, 
Christ's coming- — the errors and abominations of its 
Philosophy, Jurisprudence, Religion, and Morals. 

4. Christianity precisely what was wanted. 
This shown from its perfect adaptation to the condition 
of the world at the time of its appearance — in the cor- 
rection of the errors above mentioned ; and the substi- 
tution of right views of the true God, and of human 
duty. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 26^ 



5. The truth of Christianity. 1st. Historical 
Evidence. The great foundation facts of Christianity 
proved by an unbroken chain of history from our own 
day to that of Jesus Christ— and the genuineness of 
the books of the New Testament proved in the same 
way, by following them up to the disciples themselves. 
2d. Internal Evidence* Many of the facts recorded 
in the Gospel History, had they been false, must have 
destroyed Christianity in its very birth — the age una- 
ble to have produced such a religion — and the charac- 
ter of this religion wholly inconsistent with imposture. 
3d. External Evidence. The unparalleled progress 
of Christianity — the admission of its early opposers — ■ 
the sufferings of its first teachers — and the existence to 
this day of institutions commencing with the very oc- 
currence of certain events in the Gospel History, of 
which they are commemorative, 

II. Such are the results to which we have been 
brought by our inquiry. The arguments that have 
been employed, we have endeavored to state in a fair 
and candid manner, and we have been careful not to 
force them beyond their respective limits, nor to draw 
from them any illogical or improper conclusions. Many 
sound and weighty arguments have been omitted, be- 
cause to have introduced them at length would have 
swelled the volume beyond its intended size. But with- 
out these, it is believed that sufficient has been advanced 
to satisfy the reader, that the claims of Christianity as 
a Revelation from God, are such as are not to be light- 
ly passed over. 

III. If he who is reading is an unbeliever, we ask the 



268 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

liberty* to urge him, with something of earnestness, to 
pause a little, and reflect upon what has been said. 
He cannot deny, we think, that much important evi- 
dence has been adduced in support of the truth of the 
Christian religion— that many strong proofs of this, 
have, in the course of the preceding observations, been 
laid before him ; and in view of this, we request him 
as a candid man, to put these questions to himself : — 
Can this evidence be destroyed ? Can these proofs be 
denied ? If not, what is the course I ought to pursue i 
We request this with all sincerity, for we do verily be- 
lieve, that, if he presses these questions upon his candor, 
and forces himself to give a reasonable answer to them, 
he will come to the conclusion that Christianity is the 
truth of Heaven. 



CHAPTER IX 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

1. In strictness of speaking, we are under no obliga- 
tions to consider the subject embraced in the title of this 
chapter ; because, until the positions established in the 
preceding pages are destroyed, all objections are out of 
place. It is in vain to raise supposed difficulties to a 
few isolated passages, and on the strength of these to 
pronounce the Gospel history even doubtful, while the 
great chain of historical evidence continues unbroken — = 
while the mass of internal and external proof offered 
in support of its authenticity remains untouched. As 
well might one attempt to destroy the giant oak by cut- 
ting away a few sticks of shrubbery about its roots, 
while he leaves the trunk unharmed. Such attacks, 
we repeat, are altogether ineffectual — they do not reach 
the question at issue ; and the sceptic has made no pro- 
gress in the overthrow of Christianity, until the argu- 
ments in its behalf are fairly met and fairly answered — - 
until the historical facts by which it is established, and, 
with these, the very foundations of human knowledge 
are all prostrated in the dust. Until he has accomplish- 
ed this, every objection must fall short of the mark, 



270 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

2. Notwithstanding this position is so perfectly plain, 
it is a well-known faet that no attempt has been made 
to meet Christianity on this only proper ground. No 
unbeliever has ever yet attacked the Christian records 
by attempting to disprove, step by step, the historical 
evidence adduced in their support. This is a field on 
which the opposers of the Gospel have never been dis- 
posed to enter, for they are well aware that they cannot 
maintain themselves here. They have been urged and 
exhorted, again and again, to take position here : the 
Christian has repeatedly affirmed, that this is the only 
fair and honorable way of deciding the question, and he 
has pledged himself to rest the matter upon this point, 
and here to abide the issue. But to these earnest calls 
there is no answer ; to these continued solicitations for a 
fair trial, the only reply has been a studied silence. 
And why is this ? Plainly from a consciousness that 
failure must inevitably follow such an attempt. 

3. But this is not all. Though he refuses to meet 
the question where it can only be met to any purpose, 
he still continues to throw out his objections to Chris- 
tianity, as if they were sufficient to falsify the voice of 
all past history. Though he knows, or ought to know, 
that these very objections have been refuted, and re- 
refuted over and over, he nevertheless advances them now 
with all the confidence of originality, as if they were 
entirely new, and had for the first time been published 
to the world. The truth is, that the great mass of these 
objections, with one or two exceptions, are as old as the 
days of Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, by whom they 
were first started, and from whom they have been 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 271 

borrowed by succeeding sceptics down to the time of 
Thomas Paine. Answers to these have been published 
from fifteen to sixteen hundred years, and republished, as 
often as have been the objections, and yet not the least 
notice has been taken of them, and no attempt been made 
to prove them unsound. What then shall we think of 
men who, with these facts staring them in the face, will 
continue to bring forward these threadbare and exhaust- 
ed objections to Christianity, as if they were new 1 Is 
it honorable 1 Is it a manifestation of that spirit which 
seeketh after the truth % We would not speak harshly, 
but we do think we have reason to complain of a want 
of fair dealing. 

4. However, with all this, we are disposed to go 
over the ground again, that there may be no failure on 
our part, and no excuse on the part of the unbeliever. 
It will therefore be the object of the present chapter to 
remove from the way some supposed difficulties, and to 
point out the weakness and insufficiency of some of 
the more common objections to the authenticity of the 
Gospel history, or the truth of the facts therein related. 



SECTION I. 



hume's argument against miracles. 

1. It is well known that the argument against mira- 
cles on the ground of testimony, originated by Hume, 
has been considered as the strongest, and, by many, as 
an unanswerable objection to the miraculous part of 
Christianity. Nevertheless, it has been answered, and 
its sophistry so clearly exposed, that Hume himself 
confessed defeat. This acknowledgment was made in 
relation to the celebrated " Dissertation on Miracles " 
by Dr. Campbell, of Edinburgh ; having read which, 
Hume very frankly declared, " The Scotch theologue 
has beat me;" and in his letter to Dr. Campbell de- 
clined any reply, on the ground that he had resolved 
never to notice any attack on his works. Notwith- 
standing this acknowledgment of Mr. Hume himself, 
his followers have continued to repeat his arguments 
with as much coolness as if nothing of the kind had 
ever taken place, and with as much confidence as if no 
answer had ever been attempted. 

2. Mr. Hume's argument is this — "Experience is 
our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact 
Variable experience amounts only to probability — inva- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 273 

riable experience, to certainty. A miracle is a viola- 
tion of the laws of nature ; and as a firm and unaltera- 
ble experience has established these laws, the proof 
against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, can- 
not be surmounted by any proof whatever from testi- 
mony, because this is variable. There is, therefore, 
and ever must be, a balance of evidence against mira- 
cles." 

3. At the first glance this argument seems to amount 
to a demonstration, but upon examination it w r ill be dis- 
covered that there is no small share of assumption 
about it. 

4. First, it assumes that human testimony is al- 
ways variable. This we deny ; because testimony is 
variable or uncertain in some cases, it by no means fol- 
lows that it is in all. Under ordinary circumstances it 
may be variable in ninety-nine cases in an hundred ; 
yet under certain given circumstances it may be inva- 
riable, being precisely the same in every instance of 
the hundred or thousand. Now, we affirm that the tes- 
timony to the miracles of the New Testament is invari- 
able ; for no instance can be adduced in which, under 
the same circumstances, human testimony was known 
to be false. It was never known that men have endured 
a life of toil, persecution, and suffering, and at last sub- 
mitted to torture and death, in attestation to what they 
all knew to be an absolute falsehood. We repeat it- 
no such instance can be adduced from the records of his- 
tory or human knowledge. Our experience of testimo- 
ny, then, under these given circumstances, is invariable, 



274 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

and hence Mr. Hume's argument, based as it is upon a 
false assumption, falls to the ground.* 

5. Again, Mr. Hume says, " A miracle is a violation 
of the laws of nature." This likewise is assumption. 
A miracle may be out of the common course of nature, 
and yet may in no wise be opposed to it. We grant 
that it is out of the common course of nature, but it re- 
mains to be proved that it is a violation of nature, or of 
any of its laws. A man of Mr. Hume's philosophical 
knowledge should have remembered, that modesty is 
never out of place when speaking of nature and its laws. 
Every day is teaching us a lesson of humility in this 
respect ; and every new fact which we gather from Na- 
ture, serves but to show us how little we know as yet of 
her laws, her powers and resources, and how much 
there remains to be known. It becomes the philoso- 
pher, then, to be less confident in his assertions as to 
what is, or is not, a violation of the laws of nature. 
Until we know all her laws, and powers, and secrets, it 
would be more modest for us to suspend judgment in 
this respect; and it is believed, that as the pages of cre- 
ation are interpreted to us, we shall find cause to think 
this reserve not unwise. 

6. Mr. Hume says again, that "miracles are contrary 
to experience." This is also assertion, and not only 
assertion, but, as Mr. Hume and his followers ought to 
see, a bold assumption of the very point in debate. 
Christians and Jews have ever affirmed, that miracles 



* See Knickerbocker's Magazine for February, 1836, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 275 

are not contrary to experience ; they steadily declare 
that they have been performed, and have been witnessed 
by thousands and hundreds of thousands. It is for Mr, 
Hume, therefore, to prove, not assert, that they are con- 
trary to experience. We beg to be excused from taking 
his, or any other person's mere ipse dixit as authority 
here ; the question is too important to be decided by 
mere declamation. 

7. If it be said that a miracle is contrary to our ex- 
perience, we still dissent on the ground of an improper 
use of terms. To say that a certain event is contrary 
to, or contradicts, our experience, because we never ex- 
perienced it, is a false use of language— it is mere soph-; 
istry. " Strictly speaking, the narrative of a fact is con- 
trary to experience only, when the fact is related to 
have existed at a time and place, at w 7 hich time and place, 
we being present, did not perceive it to exist ; as if it 
should be asserted that, in a particular room, at a par- 
ticular hour of a certain day, a man was raised from 
the dead, in which room, and at the time specified, w r e 
being present, and looking on, perceived no such event 
to have taken place. Here the assertion is contrary to 
experience, properly so called ; and it matters nothing 
whether the fact be of a miraculous nature or not."* 
This is a true statement of the question, and all this 
talk about miracles contradicting our experience, is but 
an attempt to confuse with indefinite and ambiguous 
terms. If it be said that we have not experienced such 



* Paley's Evidences, — Preparatory Considerations. 



276 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



events, or that they are not generally experienced by 
others, we readily grant it, and it proves nothing when 
granted. It is no argument against miracles that they 
do not occur every where, and at all times. Every day 
miracles would be no miracles at all, so far as any ben- 
eficial effect is concerned ; for their universal occurrence 
would destroy the very object of them. 

8. Again, Mr. Hume says, " The laws of nature are 
invariable." How does he know this 1 Has he lived 
from the beginning of time, and been acquainted with all 
the laws and operations of Nature ? If not, how does he 
know, how does any one know, that they are invaria- 
ble, or that they have been established by " a firm and 
unalterable experience ? " He can only speak for his 
own experience, he can only testify to the in variableness 
of the laws of nature within the small compass of his 
own observation, which is but a little spot of earth in 
England, and of that only for the few years of his life. 
With regard to all the rest of the earth, and of the uni- 
verse, he knows nothing, and can therefore affirm 
nothing — with regard to all past ages he knows noth- 
ing of this in variableness, and can therefore affirm 
nothing, except what he knows and affirms upon the 
authority of testimony. 

9. And here it is, if Ave mistake not, where lies, at 
least, one grand fallacy in Mr. Hume's argument. He 
says that the laws of nature are invariable, but human 
testimony is variable; and hence as miracles depend 
upon testimony, there is, and always must be, a balance 
of evidence against them. Now, as has just been 
shown, all we know of the invariableness of the laws 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 277 



of Nature, excepting only that small portion which 
comes within our own personal observation, is derived 
from the testimony of others, and, therefore, from a 
source which, according to Mr. Hume's own statement, 
is variable. This, if we are not deceived, destroys the 
foundation of his argument, inasmuch as the invariable- 
ness of Nature on the one hand, and miracles on the 
other, do both depend, so to speak, upon testimony. 
The following syllogisms will show this more clearly. 

Testimony is variable, and can never amount to a cer- 
tainty ; 

The evidence for miracles depends upon testimony ; there* 
fore, 

The evidence for miracles can never amount to a cer- 
tainty. 

This is Mr. Hume's side of the question : testimony 
cannot amount to a certainty for miracles, while the in- 
variableness of nature amounts to a certainty against 
them. But it has already been shown that this inva- 
riableness itself depends upon testimony ; and the fol- 
lowing syllogism will show how near it amounts to a 
certainty against miracles. 

Testimony is variable, and can never amount to a cer- 
tainty; 

The evidence for the invariableness of the laws of nature de- 
pends upon testimony ; therefore, 

The evidence for the invariableness of the laws of nature can 
never amount to a certainty. 

10. The reader can judge now of the strength of 
Mr. Hume's argument, and decide how great is the bal- 
ance of evidence against miracles derived from the in- 



278 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



variableness of the laws of Nature. And having done 
this, he will go with us one step farther, and complete 
the process. The above argument has proceeded upon 
the admission that all testimony is variable, merely that 
Mr. Hume's objection might be met on its own ground. 
It has been previously established, however, that testi* 
mony under certain circumstances is invariable, and 
that the testimony for the miracles of the New Testa- 
ment was of this character, because it was never known 
that men endured a life of constant peril, deprivation, 
and suffering, and at last submitted to torture and death, 
in attestation to what they knew at the same time to be 
absolute falsehood. Now Mr. Hume allows that inva- 
riableness amounts to a certainty, and hence the follow- 
ing syllogism seems to settle the question. 

Testimony of a given character is invariable, and consequent* 
ly amounts to a certainty ; 

The testimony for the Christian miracles is of this given char- 
acter; therefore, 

The testimony for the Christian miracles amounts to a cer- 
tainty, 

11. But before we leave this subject, let us make an 
application to Mr. Hume's theory to known facts, and 
see how it will abide the test No testimony, says this 
philosopher, can establish a fact which is contrary to 
our experience. This expression, as already proved, 
can mean no more than a want of experience in this 
connection, which is a very different thing from being 
contrary to, or contradicting it. However, for conve- 
nience, we shall use the expression, " contrary to expe- 
rience," and endeavor to ascertain whether testimony 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



279 



Cannot, and does not, establish facts which want the 
authority of experience. 

12. " The laws of gravitation are the most obvious 
of all the laws of Nature ; every person, in every part 
of the globe, must of necessity have had experience of 
them. There was a time when no one was acquainted 
with the laws of magnetism ; these suspend in many 
instances the laws of gravitation ; nor can I see, upon 
the principle in question, how the rest of mankind 
could have credited the testimony of their first discov- 
erer ; and yet to have rejected it, would have been to 
reject the truth, But that a piece of iron should ascend 
gradually from the earth, and fly at last with an in- 
creasing rapidity through the air ; and, attaching itself 
to another piece of iron, or to a particular species of 
iron ore, should remain suspended in opposition to the 
action of its gravity, is consonant to the laws of Nature. 
I grant it ; but there was a time when it was contrary, 
not to the laws of Nature, but to the uniform experience 
of all preceding ages and countries ; and at that partic- 
ular point of time, the testimony of an individual, or of 
a dozen individuals, who should have reported them- 
selves eye-witnesses of such a fact, ought, according to 
Mr. Hume's argumentation, to be received as fabulous. 
And if any one of the laws of Nature (that, for instance, 
which rules the operations of magnetism or electricity) 
should have been known to the reader or to me alone, 
whilst all the rest of the world were unacquainted with 
it — the effects of it would have been new, and unheard 
of in the annals, and contrary to the experience of 
mankind ; and therefore false. Nor do I understand 



280 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



what difference, as to credibility, there could be, be- 
tween the effects of such an unknown law of Nature, 
and a miracle."* Here is one application of Mr. 
Hume's theory of experience against testimony, and the 
reader can judge how it stands affected. 

13. Again, " When we first heard of the fall of stones 
from the sky, there was considerable slowness to admit 
the fact. But after the concurring reports of many cred- 
itable witnesses, have we remained incredulous, because 
a meteor so strange may never have come under our 
own observation ; — though for year after year, in every 
season, and in every seeming variety of heat and light 
and moisture, we may have been most watchful observ- 
ers of all the changes of the atmosphere 1 There is 
not a philosopher, whatever theory he may have formed 
of their origin, who is not now convinced that such 
bodies have truly fallen on the surface of our earth ; — 
and why is he convinced 1 It is because the extraordi- 
nary fact, which has probably never come under his 
own observation, has been attested by many witnesses, 
able to form a judgment of it, and having no motive of 
interest to give a false report."f Now, if testimony can 
establish this remarkable fact, as it has, beyond even a 
doubt, then by the same rule it can establish a miracle, 
though both are contrary to the experience of the great 
mass of mankind. 

14. Very like this is the " meteoric phenomenon," 



* Watson's Apology for Christianity, in reply to Gibbon, Letter iii. 

f Brown on Cause and Effect, Note E, where may be found one of the most 
powerful arguments on miracles that has ever been written. Those clergymen 
who read this work will not think their time misspent. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 281 

which took place on the night of November 13, 1833. 
This wonderful event was witnessed by not more, 
probably, than one person in fifty thousand, the United 
States throughout; and all the rest, therefore, had to 
receive it upon testimony, and testimony too which was 
contrary to their experience, and not only to theirs, but 
to the experience of nearly all mankind. But who hes- 
itates to credit this fact, who believes it the less on this 
account ? No one. It is every where received and be- 
lieved upon the testimony of, comparatively speaking, a 
very few witnesses, notwithstanding that testimony is 
opposed to almost universal experience. 

15. What has now been said may, perhaps, serve 
to show that the strength of the argument in review 
lies in words more than in things. The truth is, we do 
believe testimony, although contrary to our experience, 
or in other words, when there is a want of experience, 
on our part, in relation to the events which the testi- 
mony is designed to establish. We do every day act 
upon the very principles which the argument in ques- 
tion denies. Here then is the conclusion — Mr. Hume's 
theory is destroyed by actual practice, his speculations 
are all exploded by stubborn facts, and, in spite of his 
metaphysics, men will be men, and will continue to be- 
lieve, in the very teeth of his celebrated argument. 



19 



SECTION II. 



MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE CHRISTIAN MIRACLES. 
I. FALSE MIRACLES. 

1. It is often said, that there have been false miracles 
from time immemorial, and that this very fact renders 
the miracles of the Christian religion suspicious, if it 
does not form an objection against them. But this is 
altogether gratuitous — as well might one say that vice 
renders virtue suspicious, or constitutes an objection 
against its reality. It is granted that there have been 
false miracles, but to say, therefore, that there never 
have been any true miracles, is as reasonable as it 
would be to say, that there is no genuine coin, because 
there is some spurious — that there is no real modesty 
and chastity, because there is a great deal of counter- 
feit. 

2. The false miracles which are brought forward, 
are of a very different character from those which were 
wrought by Christ and his Apostles ; and one, who will 
make a comparison between any of these pretended 
wonders of which he may have heard, and the works 
of Jesus, will find that they are altogether too distinct 
ever to be mistaken for each other* Take, as an exam- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 28S 



pie, the miracles of Mahomet, or such as were attributed 
to him ; and a moment's examination will show the con- 
trast between them and those of the New Testament 
They were performed in the night ; secretly, either by 
himself, or in the presence of his friends ; were not ob- 
jects of sense; were not permanent;— and the same 
may be said of nearly all other pretended miracles, with 
the exception of some few, which are attributable lo 
physical causes. On the other hand, the miracles of 
Christ were done openly, in the presence of enemies, 
before vast multitudes, and were of such a character as 
to preclude the possibility of deception — as feeding the 
multitudes, giving sight to the blind from birth, raising 
the dead, &c. No false miracles ever had these char- 
acteristics, and therefore form no objection against those 
of the New Testament. 

3. Beside, no false miracles have ever been subjected 
to the severe test which the Christian miracles have suc- 
cessfully passed through. They were wrought in the 
most civilized and polished countries, in an age distin- 
guished for its learning and for a spirit of inquiry, and 
when there was wanting neither power nor inclination 
to expose any fraud which might have been practised 
or attempted. " And it may be presumed that men who 
were so much interested in detecting the imposture, 
had there been any, as the Jewish high priests and rul- 
ers, and also as the heathen priests, philosophers, and 
magistrates, (some of whom immediately, and all of 
whom very soon took the alarm at the rapid spread of 
Christianity, being in the highest degree exasperated at 
it,) and who had every possible opportunity for exam in- 



284 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

ing the credentials of Christ and his Apostles, would 
have taken the most effectual methods to prevent the 
growth of a religion that was so exceedingly offensive 
to them, which was to destroy the credibility of their 
miracles, which they asserted to have been wrought, 
and to be at that very time wrought in its favor.' 5 * This 
they attempted ; they examined them with the closest 
scrutiny, and being unable to question their reality, re- 
sorted, as has been stated, to the use of the ineffable 
name Jehovah, demoniac agency, magic, &e. 

4. It is of no consequence that false miracles have 
been believed ; because they were not of such a charac- 
ter as to admit of re-examination. They appeared, as it 
were, and then vanished, and credit was given them on 
the impulse of the moment, which credit, had an oppor- 
tunity presented for investigation, would doubtless have 
been destroyed. In some instances examination was 
prevented from fear of those in power. Christ's miracles 
were wide from this ; they were permanent, and would 
admit of repeated investigation. The blind, and deaf, 
and dumb, and diseased, who were restored, and the dead, 
who had been raised to life, were afterwards among the 
people, probably for years, and could be seen and con- 
versed with, as they were, until the reality of the miracle 
was put beyond question. 

5. And it is a consideration of great importance that 
the early Christians took this very ground against their 
opposers. Gluadratus, whom Eusebius calls a " disci- 



* Priestley's Institutes, Part II. c. i. $ 3. 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 285 

pie of the Apostles," and who only twenty-three years 
after the death of John presented an Apology in defence 
of the Christians to the emperor Adrian, makes the fol- 
lowing appeal : — " The works of our Savior were al- 
ways conspicuous, for they were real. Both they that 
were healed, and they that were raised from the dead, 
not only when they were healed or raised, but for a 
long time afterwards ; not only while he dwelled on this 
earth, but also after his departure and for a good while 
subsequent to it — insomuch that some of them have 
reached to our own times."* Now, if the miracles of 
Christ were not real, and the fact here stated true, must 
not Quadratics have been incomparably foolish to have 
needlessly convicted himself by such bold appeals to 
what every one knew was false ? 

6. Justin Martyr in the year 140, Tertullian in the 
year 200, and Origen in the year 230, make use of the 
same argument in relation to the permanent character 
of the miracles of Christ, affirming that they were such 
as to be seen, and known, and examined of men. The 
fact, therefore, that false or spurious miracles have been 
credited, is no objection to Christian miracles, because 
there is no parallel between the two cases. The latter 
were of such a character as to admit of no mistake, 
they were abiding — the subjects of them lived for years 
among the people, open to constant examination, and 
thus excluding all possible chance of deception. 

H. THE IGNORANCE OF THE AGE. 

1. This is a favorite objection with many opposers 



* Eusebius, Hiet. 1. iv. c. 3. cited by Paley. Evidences, P, III. c. v 



286 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

of the Christian religion. Men are easily deceived in 
this age, say they, and how much more easy was it to 
deceive them eighteen hundred years ago, when they 
were sank in the lowest depths of ignorance and dark- 
ness. This assertion is often heard from those who 
prefer not to take the trouble of close and patient in- 
quiry into the matter ; and it is considered by them as a 
sufficient explanation of all the miracles, and of the 
progress of the Christian religion. Now, we beg leave 
to say that this is mere assertion. The period at which 
Christ made his appearance was not an age of such 
profound ignorance and darkness, as the unbeliever im- 
agines or affirms. 

2. So far from this, it is a fact, well known to those 
who are acquainted with the history of the period in 
question, that it was the era of the declension of the 
hitherto prevailing darkness, and the spread of general 
information. " It happened very providentially," says 
Mr, Addison, "to the honor of the Christian religion, 
that it did not take its rise in the dark illiterate ages of 
the worlds but at a time when arts and sciences were at 
their height, and when there were men who made it 
the business of their lives to search after truth, and sift 
the several opinions of philosophers and wise men, 
concerning the duty, the end, and chief happiness of 
reasonable creatures. 33 And we find in and about this 
period some of the greatest names of antiquity, and 
many of the most celebrated compositions of any age 
or country. We need mention only those of Virgil, 
Horace, Cicero, Nepos, Sallust, Livy ; and after these 
Plutarch, Tacitus, Pliny the naturalist, and the younger 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY . 287 

Pliny, and many others of the same class. To say 
that an age which produced such men as these, men 
who have been the wonder and admiration of the world s 
was an age of profound ignorance and darkness, is but 
a confession of one's own ignorance of the history of 
the times. The truth is, it was what it has been justly 
called, " a learned and inquisitive age," and formed one 
of the brightest stars in the constellation of Roman lit- 
erature. Such an age, therefore, was, of all others, the 
least likely to be imposed upon by false miracles or 
frauds of any kind. 

3. The sceptic should remember, that there is a vast 
difference between false and erroneous views of God 
and religion, and what he calls profound ignorance, 
That the people of this age had the most absurd reli- 
gious notions, and were morally blinded, is true; but 
moral darkness is one thing, and intellectual darkness 
quite another. While we admit the first in relation to 
this period, we deny the last, the falsity of which has 
been proved. And we desire our friends, when com- 
menting upon this particular, to be a little more guarded, 
and before they attribute the rise and progress of Chris- 
tianity to the ignorance of the age, to make the distinc- 
tion we have pointed out; because it is most surely 
a very important one, and will unquestionably put a 
very different face upon their assertions. 

4. But even suppose we admit the objection, length 
and breadth, grant that the people were both morally 
and intellectually darkened, that they were buried in 
universal ignorance — what then? Does this make 
them incompetent witnesses of the plainest matters of 



288 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 



fact 1 Take the most ignorant man that can be found, 
one that never saw a book ; if he has the use of his 
eyes, and ears, and senses, he can certainly tell whether 
a multitude were fed with five loaves or five thousand, 
whether he sees a dead body already in a state of decay 
come forth to life, and move, and speak, and eat. It 
does not require much learning or philosophy to enable 
one to decide a matter of this sort. Yet these, and 
such as these, were the miracles of Christ ; they were 
matters of fact, to judge of which it was but necessary 
to have common sense, and the use of one's physical 
faculties. The objection, then, founded on the igno- 
rance of the age, is, in the first place, false ; and, in the 
second place, if true, would not weigh a feather against 
the Christian miracles. 

III. IF CHRIST WROUGHT SO MANY AND SUCH GREAT MIRACLES, WHY 
WAS NOT THE WHOLE JEWISH NATION CONVERTED — HOW COULD 
THEY RESIST SUCH EVIDENCE 1 

1. This question is often asked with a confidence 
which seems to signify that he who asks it is satisfied 
that it casts a suspicion upon the reality of the Christian 
miracles. The sceptic affirms, that if Christ actually 
wrought the miracles ascribed to him by the Evange- 
lists, the unbelief of the Jews, can in no way be ac- 
counted for, inasmuch as it would seem to be absolutely 
impossible to resist the force of such evidence. If one 
were now to restore to life a man who had been dead 
four days, we should believe at once in his divine mis- 
sion, because we could not help it — the mind could not 
bear up against the weight of evidence like this; it 
would be compelled to submit, so to speak, whether it 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 289 

would or not. This appears somewhat plausible, at the 
first, but a little examination will show us that some 
things are taken for granted which we do not feel dis- 
posed to grant as readily as the objector might wish. 
The objection assumes as its very base that the Jews did 
not believe on Christ. But who, we ask, is meant by 
the Jews t That the whole nation was not converted is 
admitted; but that many, yea, that multitudes were, is 
certain. 

2. It is a well-known fact, that the first preachers of 
the Gospel, and all the first believers therein, were 
Jews, who, notwithstanding their strong prejudices, 
were convinced by the works which Christ wrought, 
and embraced his religion. Every one who has read 
the evangelical histories, and especially the four or five 
first chapters in the Acts of the Apostles, will be satis- 
fied that great numbers of the Jews believed. Fre- 
quent mention is made of " multitudes," a " great multi- 
tude both of men and women ;" and there are two in- 
stances, in one of which, three thousand, and in the 
other, five thousand at a time, were converted to the 
Gospel faith. Let this objection be confined, then, to 
its proper limits, and much of its supposed force will 
be lost at the very outset. 

3. It will be observed, farther, that this inquiry seems 
to assume that all the Jewish nation were eye-witnesses 
of the miracles of Christ, which gives a greater weight 
to their rejection. This, however, was by no means the 
case. It is probable that but a very small portion of 
the great body of the Jews were spectators of the 
works which Christ performed; and indeed this is 



290 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



rendered certain from the very nature of the case. 
Hundreds and thousands may have witnessed every 
separate miracle, and yet there would be an hundred to 
one who had not seen any of them. Christ wrought, 
say, fifty miracles : suppose five thousand different per- 
sons to have witnessed each one, there would then be 
two hundred and fifty thousand eye-witnesses; — but this 
was but a small part of the inhabitants of Palestine. 
The rejection of these miracles, therefore, was not alto- 
gether the rejection of those who actually saw them, as 
the argument in question unfairly insinuates ; and the 
great mass of those who did see them, believed. 

4. Beside this, there w r ere doubtless very many who 
believed on Christ without acknowledging this openly, 
through fear of being excommunicated from among the 
faithful. To some extent we are certain of this, for one 
of the historians assures us that this was the case ; he 
informs his readers that many of the " chief rulers be- 
lieved on him, but confessed him not because of the 
Pharisees, lest they should be put out of the synagogue." 
There were unquestionably many in the same situation 
with Nicodemus and Gamaliel, who wanted to be 
Christians, and acknowledge Jesus, but were afraid to 
do it ; many like these rulers, who from dread of the 
Pharisees chose to believe on Christ secretly. To 
judge of the really converted, therefore, by the number 
who followed him openly, would result in a false esti- 
mate. 

5. So far as regards the unbelieving part of the Jews, 
their scepticism may be accounted for without half the 
difficulty which the objection in review supposes. In 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY, 291 

the first place, then, the views which the Jewish people 
had cherished respecting the Messiah, were of a char- 
acter as wide as possible from those with which they 
looked upon Jesus. They had ever associated with the 
very name of the Messiah all their highest conceptions 
of grandeur and glory ; his coming was to be that of a 
mighty conqueror, with the pomp and parade of royal- 
ty ; before him their enemies and oppressors were to be 
humbled even to the dust ; Jerusalem, the beloved city, 
was to be restored to her former glory ; and by the 
might of his single arm their nation was to be exalted 
to the very heavens, while he as their king was to sway 
the sceptre over a subjugated world ! How was it 
possible, then, that they should receive the despised 
Nazarene as this glorious Messiah— how was it pos- 
sible that they could believe on him as their deliverer, 
when they considered his humble condition and appear- 
ance, when they saw him teaching the publican and sin- 
ner, and heard him repeatedly declaring that his king- 
dom was not of this world ? True, it was certain that 
he performed wonderful works ; but it was equally cer- 
tain also, in their opinion, that he could not be the Mes- 
siah, 

6. And here we have but to remember that a belief 
in the agency of evil spirits, and in magic, prevailed 
almost universally in this age, and we shall have not 
the least cause for wonder that the miracles of Christ 
did not convince a greater number. He could not be 
the Messiah ; of this they were satisfied, and being sat- 
isfied, they readily accounted for his miracles by re- 
fering them to Beelzebub, the prince of demons, with 
whom he was supposed to be in league, or to the assist- 



292 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

ance of some subordinate evil spirit. Did he cast out 
devils, or, in other words, heal the sick ? It was by the 
aid of the prince of devils. Did he give sight to the 
blind, hearing to the deaf, or speech to the dumb ? He 
did it by the power of demons. Did he raise the 
dead ? It was through the agency of evil spirits. 
Here then was a complete solution of all difficulties, 
a key which to their minds unlocked the mystery of 
his miraculous powers. And in this view of the state 
of things at the period in question, the wonder is, that, 
with their high notions of the rank, and splendor, and 
power of the Messiah, and with this belief in the super- 
natural agency of evil spirits, and their power to work 
miracles — the wonder is, we repeat, that so many be- 
lieved on Christ as actually did. 



SECTION III, 



THE DIFFERENCES IN THE GOSPEL HISTORIES, 

1. Nothing can be more unfair or more un philo- 
sophical than to pronounce a story, told by two or three 
different [persons, false, merely because there are some 
slight variations with regard to unimportant particulars, 
in their manner of relating it. It is a well-known fact 
that, in the ordinary affairs of life, no two persons will, 
in all the minutias, give the same account of any single 
event of which they both may have been eye-witnesses. 
And if we extend the account to the numerous and va- 
rious events of the life of a mutual friend, it is easy to 
perceive that, of necessity, there would be considerable 
difference in regard to the connection of the particulars 
of the history, and the precise time and circumstances 
of certain actions and events. 

2. " Some things would be omitted by one, and men- 
tioned by the other ; some things would be briefly 
touched by one, and the same things would be circum- 
stantially detailed by the other ; the same things which 
are mentioned in the same way by them both, may not 
be mentioned as having happened at exactly the same 
point of time, — with other possible and probable differ- 



294 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



ences. But these real or apparent difficulties, in minute 
circumstances, will not invalidate their testimony as to 
the material transactions of his life, much less will they 
render it a fable. If several honest men should agree 
in saying, that they saw the king of France beheaded, 
though they should disagree as to the figure of the guil- 
lotine, or to the size of his executioner, as to the king's 
hands being bound or loose, as to his being composed 
or agitated in ascending the scaffold, yet every court of 
justice in the world would think, that such difference, 
respecting the circumstances of the fact, did not invali- 
date the evidence respecting the fact itself."* 

3. So far from this, indeed, these very differences 
with regard to minutiae, afford the surest evidence of the 
honesty of the witnesses. And here we have but to 
apply this rule to the Gospel histories, and weshali find 
that the slight variations discoverable in these respect- 
ing unimportant particulars, instead of destroying their 
credibility, as Mr. Paine would have it, furnish almost 
demonstrative proof of the truth of the narrative. Had 
it been otherwise, had there been a perfect agreement, 
even in the most trifling circumstances, between these 
four writers, we should have had just cause to suspect 
something like a -combination among them to tell the 
same story. And the sceptic would doubtless have 
seized upon this very agreement as an argument against 
the evangelical records; and indeed it would have been 
one much more weighty than that which Mr. Paine has 



* Watson'* Apology for the Bible, in reply to JPaine, p. 1023 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 295 

advanced from the contrary, because such an exactness 
in minute particulars would seem necessarily to carry 
with it the suspicion of an understanding among the 
writers. But as it is, nothing of the kind can be start- 
ed ; the slight differences as to unimportant circumstan- 
ces in their accounts of the same event, only serve to 
show that there was no comparing of notes, but that 
each told his story in his own way, as an independent 
witness. Nevertheless, as Mr. Paine has, because of 
these variations, sweepingly pronounced the whole his- 
tory false, we are disposed to meet him on his own 
ground. 

4. The particular points of difference on which he 
builds his assertion are — the two genealogical tables given 
by Matthew and Luke- — the variations in the accounts of 
the particulars attending the crucifixion— and those in the 
several recordsof the resurrection. It is upon these points 
that the strength of his objections is grounded, and in 
the notice he is pleased to take of them, he is very lib- 
eral in dealing out foul epithets, ridicule, and abuse of 
the most low and indecent character, and that where 
there is not the least call for it. We frankly confess 
that we have no sort of respect for Mr. Paine ; there is 
too much slang and ribaldry about his attack upon 
Christianity, to admit of it. A man who has lost all 
respect for himself, has no claim upon the respect of oth- 
ers. There is, comparatively speaking, a dignity in the 
arguments of Hume, and a decency, at least, in the " sol- 
emn sneer," of Gibbon ; and, though enemies, we feel 
that they are not unworthy of respect. But nothing of 
this kind can we say for Mr. Paine, 



296 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



5. In the outset of his attack upon the writers of the 
Gospel history, he presents his readers with what he pro- 
nounces an incontrovertible position, as follows: — "The 
agreement of all parts of a story, does not prove that 
story to be true, because the facts may agree, and the 
whole may be false ; — the disagreement of the parts of 
a story proves that the whole cannot be true. The 
agreement does not prove truth, but the disagreement 
proves falsehood positively." Now, with all deference 
for Mr. Paine' s logical acumen, we must beg permis- 
sion to dissent from his conclusion, that " disagreement 
proves falsehood positively." 

6. Let us examine briefly one or two of his examples. 
He applies his rule to the genealogies of Christ as given 
by Matthew and Luke ; and adds triumphantly, — " If 
Matthew spake truth, Luke speaks falsehood ; and if 
Luke spake truth, Matthew speaks falsehood; and 
thence there is no authority for believing either." Such 
is the sweeping and short-hand style, in which he passes 
sentence upon these two writers. Now, we have only 
to say here that " both Matthew and Luke speak truth, 
though not the same truth." Matthew gives the gene- 
alogy of Joseph, and Luke the genealogy of Mary, and 
both accounts are true, though not the same. Mr. Paine 
is welcome to the spoils of his " incontrovertible posi- 
tion," and to all the "positive falsehood," which the 
disagreement in this story may prove. Again ; Mat- 
thew, he says, speaks of an earthquake, " but the other 
books say nothing about an earthquake, nor about the 
angel rolling back the stone and sitting upon it : and 
according to their accounts there was no angel sitting 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 297 

there." This is a specimen of the accuracy of our 
author's conclusions, or of their honesty. Because the 
other writers say nothing about an earthquake and the 
angel, therefore there were none. By the same rule 
we say, because Matthew says something about them, 
therefore there was an earthquake and an angel. But 
Mr. Paine should have known that omission and con- 
tradiction are two very different things ; and that be- 
cause an author omits the mention of a certain event, 
it does by no means prove that said event never took 
place. And yet throughout he constantly takes the 
ground that the omission of a circumstance by one 
writer, proves "falsehood positively" in him who men- 
tions it. Mr. Paine' s readers will do well to notice 
this, and they will do better to read Watson's reply to 
him. 

7. Since so much stress is laid upon the supposed or 
asserted fact, that " disagreement proves falsehood posi- 
tively," and since many have been led to doubt the truth 
of the Gospel history, because of the variation or dif- 
ferences in their several accounts of the birth, death, 
and resurrection of Christ — we shall, in as few words 
as possible, apply the rule to some well known facts in 
history, and see if Mr. Paine and his followers will 
abide the results. 

8. In the history of England there is an instance 
which deserves notice — the death of the Marquis of 
Argyll. Lord Clarendon informs us that he was con- 
demned and hanged on the same day ; while, in oppo- 
sition to this, we have the statements of Burnet, Wood- 

20 



298 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



row, &c, which agree in saying that he was condemned 
on Saturday and beheaded on Monday.* Now the 
reader will perceive that here is an example far more 
pointed and remarkable than any of those which have 
been taken out of the Gospels. There is not only a 
difference here, but an absolute contradiction. 

Lord Clarendon. Burnet, Woodrow, &c. 

1. The Marquis of Argyll 1. The Marquis of Argyll 
was condemned and executed was condemned on Saturday, 
on the same day. and executed on the following 

Monday. 

2. He was hanged. 2. He was beheaded. 

9. Here is, as observed, a positive contradiction in 
two prominent particulars ; yet who, because of this, 
ever supposed that the condemnation and death of the 
Marquis of Argyll, was mere fiction ? Who was ever 
so sceptical as to pronounce the whole story falsehood ? 
It nevertheless is falsehood, if Mr. Paine's argument is 
good. 

10. Let us take a more familiar example. The read- 
er will perceive that in the following accounts there is 
some considerable difference, especially in one partic- 
ular ; and he is required, therefore, according to the 
rule in question, to consider the whole a fabrication. 

Weems. Goodrich. 

1. " The American generals 1. " The evening preceding 
on the ni^ht of June 16, dis- June 17, a detachment of one 
patched fifteen hundred men to thousand Americans were or- 
throw up an entrenchment on dered to make an entrenchment 
Bunker's Hiil."t on Bunker's Hill."? 



* Paley's Evidences Part III. c. i. 

t Life of Washington, p. 74. J History of United States, p. 132.- 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



299 



Weems. Paulding. 

2. "The British moved to the 2. "The gallant British sol- 
attack with rattling drums, and diers came steadily on, silent as 
incessant discharges of muskets the graze, so many of them were 
and great guns." soon to occupy, and were wait- 
ed for by a foe equally silent." * 

Weems. Goodrich. 

3. " By order of Gage, the 3. " The conflagration of six 
beautiful port of Charlestown, hundred buildings added a gloo- 
of three hundred fine buildings, my and am azing grandeur" to 
was wrapped in flames." the scene. 

11. In these accounts we have two very striking ex- 
amples of disagreement, and one of direct contradiction. 
One history says there were fifteen hundred Americans ; 
the other one thousand — one says there were six hun- 
dred buildings burned ; the other three hundred — and 
one says the British troops moved to the attack with the 
silence of the grave ; the other that they advanced with 
a perfect uproar of drums and guns. Therefore, ac- 
cording to Mr. Paine, the whole account of the battle 
of Bunker Hill, and the burning of Charlestown, " so 
far from being truth, is not even a reasonable lie ! " 
But where is the man who will assert this ? where is 
the sceptic who will apply to the common affairs of life, 
and the events of history, the rule which he applies to 
the Bible ? Such an one cannot be found. We say, 
then, if the disagreements of these historians does not 
disprove the reality of the events of which they write, 
neither do those of the Evangelists, which are mere 
ciphers compared with these, disprove the truth of their 
history. But if it be insisted that the differences of the 
Gospel writers prove the falsehood of their history, 



* Life of Washington, vol i. p. 150. 



300 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 

then the differences above noticed prove, beyond all 
question, that no such events as the battle of Bunker 
Hill and the conflagration of Charlestown, ever took 
place, but that the whole story is a base and clumsy 
fabrication of these pretended historians. 

12. This is all we ask, that the Gospel histories 
shall be placed on the same footing- with other histories, 
and that what proves one false, shall prove the other 
false also. Let both be judged by the same rule, and 
Mr. Paine and his followers are welcome to the results. 

13. Though the following are not strictly embraced 
under the head of this section, weare nevertheless dis- 
posed to give them a brief notice. 

14. Mr. Paine asks very confidently why Christ did 
not show himself to the Jews after his resurrection, 
and thus convince them beyond dispute that he was 
from God ? To this we reply, It is scarcely possible, 
had he done this, that the Jews would have believed ; 
they had already rejected evidence of the same char- 
acter, in the case of Lazarus and the son of the widow 
of Nain. And what reason have we to expect that 
they would have received it in the case of Christ, see- 
ing that it had been already twice rejected ? 

15. But let us examine the ground of this question 
a little more closely. It supposes that if Christ had 
made a public appearance after his resurrection, if he 
had shown himself to his murderers, they would have 
been convinced, and, with the whole Jewish nation ? 
converted. But admit for a moment that it had been 
so ; admit that Christ had shown himself in the way 
proposed, and the result had been that the chief priests, 



CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 301 

and pharisees, and rulers had been converted and made 
Christians. Now, had this been the case, we should 
have been exposed to an attack on the other hand ; 
Mr. Paine and his followers would have asserted at 
once that the whole scheme was got up by the priests 
and rulers, and that it was no wonder that Christianity 
spread so rapidly, when it had all the influence of the 
pharisees and priests, and all the power of the rulers 
to aid it. This would have been an objection which it 
were difficult to have answered satisfactorily ; but as it 
is, the Infidel cannot wield this weapon against us. 
God has ordered the matter in the very best possible 
manner, and we do say without hesitation, that no plan 
could be devised which should be less liable to objec- 
tion than the history of this matter by the Evangelists. 

16. Again: Mr. Paine is pleased to introduce us to 
his stores of ecclesiastical knowledge, and in pity for 
our ignorance informs us when the New Testament 
was made. " Those," says he, 11 who are not much 
acquainted with ecclesiastical history; may suppose 
that the book called the New Testament has existed 
ever since the time of Jesus Christ — but the fact is his- 
torically otherwise ; there was no such book as the 
New Testament, till more than three hundred years 
after the time Christ is said to' have lived." This para- 
graph seems designed to mislead. If Mr. Paine means 
to say that the books composing the New Testament 
were not in existence till more than three hundred 
years after Christ, he is either exceedingly dishonest, 
or exceedingly ignorant of his subject. We have 
already, as the reader knows, followed these books up 



302 CHRISTIANITY AGAINST INFIDELITY. 



to the very feet of the disciples and companions of 
Christ, by an unbroken chain of history; so that Mr. 
Paine's "historical fact" is in direct contradiction to 
history. 

17. If he means to say that these books were not 
collected into one volume until three hundred years 
after Christ, the assertion needs proof. But suppose 
we grant it — what then ? Does that prove they did 
not exist? Suppose we apply Mr. Paine's rule, thus : — 
" Those who are not much acquainted with American 
history may suppose that the book called ' The Letters 
and Writings of Washington,' * has existed ever since 
the time of Washington, but the fact is historically 
otherwise ; there was no such book until more than 
thirty years after his time." Should we show much 
wisdom in this observation. The reader would say it 
was a weak attempt to deceive, for he very well knows 
that the Letters and Writings existed, whether they 
were collected into volumes or not. The same is true 
of the New Testament; so that our author's ecclesiasti- 
cal lore is all . thrown away. 

18. There are several other minor objections and 
supposed difficulties raised by Mr. Paine, but they are 
of such a character as to require no notice: their ab- 
surdity, and the ignorance, perhaps, rather than dis- 
honesty, which they betray, are too palpable to exert 
any great influence. 



* The Writings of Washington edited by Sparks. 



CONCLUSION. 



We have now arrived at the close of our inquiry. 
We have given a reason for the hope that is in us — we 
have placed before the reader a portion, and only a por- 
tion, of the mighty mass of evidence by which our holy 
religion is established as a revelation from God — we 
have traced it, step by step, to the day of its birth — we 
have considered the circumstances under which it took 
its rise, and made its progress through the world — we 
have contemplated the stupendous miracles by which 
the seal was set to its divinity — we have seen the ab- 
solute impossibility of imposture — and lastly we have 
endeavored to show the fallacy of the objections, and 
the weakness of the difficulties which captious spirits 
have sought to throw up in its way. We have now 
done : we leave the matter in the hands of the reader, 
with the earnest request that he will pursue the inves- 
tigation until he knows all that can be known concern- 
ing it. — And may God lift upon him the light of his 
countenance, and lead him to the Fountain of eternal 
Truth. 



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